Hollywood Homicide Is a Felony In Progress

Starring Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett, Hollywood Homicide is a crime against all good, good cop/bad cop - buddy flicks.
While the film does have the occasional laugh out loud moment, the remaining time is spent guessing what the heck director Ron Shelton was trying to do. In fact, it seemed that Shelton had no clue as to where to begin his film about two Hollywood Homicide detectives assigned to the case of four rappers slain onstage. Shelton has had success with such movies as Tin Cup and White Men Can't Jump, but his lack of vision and ... well ... caring is nothing less than an outright crime against Ford and Hartnett, who, I think, could have pulled this movie off with a better script and director. It's as if Shelton just can't get what he wants from his actors ... or he has no idea how.
But alas, not all the blame for this murder of a movie can be placed at the feet of the director. Oh no, the script is evidence a-plenty that something's amiss in Hollywood. I mean, seriously, who let this script get passed into the hands of Ford and Hartnett, and, then, who convinced these guys it was a good idea? This makes me wonder who passed on the roles before hand. At any rate, the plot is overly simplistic, but tries, despite itself, to be overly complicated. There are too many unnecessary elements, too many loose strings that do nothing to add to the story, but serve only to convolute it even further. It's bad enough that the film runs nearly two hours, and much of that is spent spinning in circles, waiting for the plot to develop. Then, once the action finally gets going, it's all ramshackle and thrown together, as if Shelton realized he needed to hurry up and end the film.
Even worse, however, was to see two decent actors struggle with something that could have been a contender. Ford and Hartnett's characters lack chemistry and depth, so you don't really care about them too much. While you understand their motivations early on, it seems that Shelton wanted to try and develop the cops' personal lives and film those instead of filming them solving a tough case. These guys are not your Glover and Gibson, and this film is not your Lethal Weapon. The duo have a few moments that work, but in the end, a few scenes a good movie does not make, and you end up just waiting for the merciful end.
With a poorly scripted plot, poor direction, and, unfortunately, poor acting (I can deal with the two former if the latter is decent), Hollywood Homicide tries too hard and fails. The non-sensical ending was horribly lame, which only capped off the list of cinema crimes the film tries to get away with. Hollywood Homicide isn't a comedy or a cop/buddy flick ... it's just plain bad filmmaking.