Hollywood Homicide

I had the misfortune to choose a free, on-demand, Harrison Ford movie this weekend called Hollywood Homicide (2003).  I guess Mr. Ford can't have all hits.  This one would not be on my "must have" list, but I won't hold it against Harrison!

It is a story about two detectives in LA, who are working on a murder case.  Both detectives have second jobs.  Ford is a real estate agent, and the other lead, Josh Hartnet (b. 1978), is an aspiring actor.  There is a very serious murder to be solved, but for some reason they thought it would be funny to let their second jobs get in the way of everyday police work.  It wasn't.

Example:  After a really exciting car chase, Ford gets into an elevator with several innocent bystanders.  He is bloody, carrying a gun, and his cell phone rings.  He closes a deal on a house while riding the elevator, then smiles at the others.  I would have let the call go to voicemail.

Notwithstanding, there were many Bit Actors involved in this movie, and some of them were pretty good.  I don't have to write about good movies, just good Bit Actors!

When the titles were rolling, one name stuck out...Gladys Knight (b. 1944), without The Pips.  That may be one reason I watched the movie.  She played the mother, and a former Motown singer, of a witness to the murder.  Gladys only has 15 titles as an actress, but she was good in this one.  As they are talking about rappers, Ford says, "I don't get the music."  Knight replies, "You ain't s'posed to get the music." in a perfectly timed response with just the right expression.

Bruce Greenwood (b. 1956) played one of the bad cops.  He has a long career in the works with 103 titles, starting in 1977.  I vaguely remember him in "St. Elsewhere" in the 1980s.  He also played Dennis Wilson, one of the original Beach Boys in "Summer Dreams: The Story of the Beach Boys" in 1990. 

In 1992 Greenwood worked with Wesley Snipes (b. 1962) in Passenger 57.  As the years passed, he works in a few more TV series' and a pretty good list of movies:
1997 - Father's Day with Robin Williams (b. 1951)
1999 - Thick as Thieves with Alec Baldwin (b. 1958)
2000 - Rules of Engagement with Tommy Lee Jones (b. 1946)
2004 - I, Robot with Will Smith (b. 1968)
2005 - Capote
2009 - Star Trek

Lou Diamond Phillips (b. 1962) is another good actor.  He has 97 titles on IMDb, and I particularly liked him in Courage Under Fire (1996) as an intense (and guilty) soldier who eventually commits suicide.  In an earlier film, he played Richie Valens in La Bamba (1987). 

All in all, if you get to see this movie for free, it might be worth the effort.  The action scenes are very good, but the comedy needs a lot of work.