Hollywood Homicide

A veteran cop (Harrison Ford) and his young partner (Josh Hartnett) investigate four murders at a Los Angeles hip-hop club; at the same time, the veteran juggles a real-estate business on the side, the younger man secretly longs to be an actor, and both of them are being investigated on corruption charges. Ron Shelton’s laid-back, “what the hell, let’s make a movie” direction grapples lackadaisically with all the plot threads in his and Robert Souza’s script, and the film goes on about 20 minutes too long (mainly in an endless climactic chase scene). Virtues include the comic rapport between Ford and Hartnett and a good supporting cast (with amusing cameos by Eric Idle, Lou Diamond Phillips, Robert Wagner and others). The last scene—the payoff to Hartnett’s stage ambitions—is the best in the whole movie.