Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Hollywood Homicide Blu-ray Movie Review

Let's Make a Deal

Reviewed by Michael Reuben June 30, 2013

Hollywood Homicide was a notorious bomb when it hit theaters in June 2003. Despite the star power of Harrison Ford, the directorial skill of Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, Tin Cup) and the authenticity of Shelton's co-screenwriter, former cop Robert Souza, who borrowed heavily from his own experiences, critics savaged the film and audiences stayed away. The $75 million production took in just over $51 million at the box office worldwide.

There were a few exceptions to the general condemnation, however. One was the late Roger Ebert, who appreciated the snap of the dialogue between Ford and his co-star Josh Hartnett. Another was myself, who has always enjoyed Ford in comic roles, even if the only one that ever succeeded with audiences was in Working Girl. Besides, the title should have tipped off everyone that this wasn't your standard tale of crime; this was a Hollywood tale. If New York crime stories are typically about grit, and L.A. crime stories are usually about corruption, a Hollywood story recalls Oscar Levant's famous quip: "Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you'll find the real tinsel underneath." In Shelton's and Souza's script, the homicide detectives were anything but hard-boiled. Sure, they did their jobs, but their hearts lay elsewhere—in show business, New Age pursuits and that classic preoccupation of the true Hollywood insider, real estate.

If Hollywood Homicide has a notable feature that makes it unlikely as a crowd-pleaser, it's that too much seems to be happening at once, and it's easy to imagine audiences in 2003 not knowing where to focus. (The marketing campaign didn't help.) Shelton's strength as a director is his ability to keep multiple balls in the air, but audiences who still expected Harrison Ford to be the dashing action hero probably weren't ready for the quick shifts in tone that his character undergoes, often in the same scene, as he juggles different aspects of his life. Ford handles these transitions with the skill of the consummate pro he long ago became, but he's been hemmed in for much of his career by audience expectations based on Han Solo and Indiana Jones. The detectives in Hollywood Homicide do eventually close their case, but neither of them is that kind of hero.

The murder of a rap group called H2OClick, whose star is rising, at a nightclub owned by Julius Armas (Master P) is the crime that sets the film in motion. A songwriter for the band, known only as K-Ro (Kurupt), sees the two shooters (Shawn Woods and Anthony Mackie) and barely escapes with his life.

Assigned to the case by their commander, Leon (Keith David), are a mismatched pair who have only been partners for a few months: Sgt. Joe Gavilan (Ford), a grizzled veteran, and Det. K.C. Calden (Hartnett), who, as far as Gavilan is concerned, is still a rookie. Both of them moonlight, and while they do good police work, each is always being interrupted by some aspect of his other career.

Gavilan is a real estate broker, who currently has all his funds tied up in a white elephant house on Mt. Olympus (a real location) that he's desperate to sell. (Remember, this was the era of the real estate bubble, when brokers invested their own money in properties they then would "flip".) He's so far overextended that other bills go unpaid, which leads to a number of tangles during the course of the film, including a problem with Internal Affairs. While inspecting the crime scene of the H2OClick murder and interviewing the club owner, Gavlian picks up that Julius is currently looking to acquire a new residence, and he immediately shifts into realtor mode.

Calden teaches yoga classes, and all his students are women, many of whom leave the classes telling the handsome detective how "open" they're feeling. They ask him about private lessons, hand him their phone numbers or, in some cases, just show up at his home unannounced. A running joke is that Calden can't remember the name of the woman with whom he most recently spent the night, and they don't seem to care. But despite the perks of teaching yoga, what Calden really wants to do is act, and he's rented a theater for one night to mount his own staging of A Streetcar Named Desire and showcase his chops for whoever he can persuade to attend. He's always running lines in his head. At any moment, he's liable to break into cries of "Stella!"

Both detectives see opportunity when one of Calden's lady friends connects them with a big-time movie producer whose career has hit the skids, Jerry Duran (Martin Landau, in what amounts to an extended cameo). Duran needs to sell his house, which would be perfect for upwardly mobile club owner Julius. On a quick side trip from their investigation, Gavilan sweet-talks Duran into a short-term exclusive listing, while Calden discreetly leaves him an invitation to his play. Then it's back to looking for H2OClick's killers. (Screenwriter Souza based the incident on his own moonlighting career as a broker, during which he attempted to sell the house of producer Robert Evans to Dodi Fayed, the wealthy Egyptian businessman later killed in a car crash with Princess Diana.)

The chief suspect in the club murders is Antoine Sartain (Isaiah Washington), H2OClick's manager and record producer, who looks like Sean Combs and acts like Suge Knight. But Sartain is insulated by his head of security, a former cop named Wasley (Dwight Yoakam), who knows the LAPD's procedures and is an expert at anticipating their moves. The key now is who finds K-Ro first.

As if this weren't enough for one movie, Wasley has a special connection to Calden's past, and an Internal Affairs lieutenant named Macko (Bruce Greenwood) is conducting a witch hunt against Gavilan because of an old grudge. The focus of Macko's inquiry is a madam (Lolita Davidovich, Shelton's wife) who may or may not have damaging information about Sartain but wants a lot of favors for herself and her girls before she'll provide any of it. Add in a radio psychic with a mysterious smile, Ruby (Lena Olin), whom Gavilan habitually calls and who loves to shop on Rodeo Drive, and Shelton has enough to fill several films.

The film is full of sly celebrity cameos. Gavilan keeps shaking his head about how he doesn't "get" rap, and he's clearly a Motown man (his ringtone is from "My Girl"). So it's only fitting when Gladys Knight appears as a former backup singer and mother of K-Ro, whom Gavilan compliments by telling her she was much better than Tammy Terrell. The great Smokey Robinson stops by late in the film, but he's easy to miss if you're not paying attention. Monty Python's Eric Idle shows up early as a celebrity bust at the police station, Lou Diamond Phillips plays an undercover cop (in heels and heavy makeup), Frank Sinatra Jr. plays a celebrity lawyer and Robert Wagner appears as himself trying (unsuccessfully) to place his hand prints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Still, by far the best part of Hollywood Homicide is watching Harrison Ford's seemingly effortless tumble between Gavilan's crime-solving skills, which are now almost reflex, and his ham-fisted attempts to close a house sale between Jerry Duran and club owner Julius. So hungry is Gavilan for this deal that he'll take calls about it anywhere, anytime: during a high speed chase, while being grilled by an IA cop, even when he's bruised and bloody. Fighting crime in Hollywood may be tough, but for true brutality there's nothing like real estate.

Hollywood Homicide Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Barry Peterson, who had just shot Dark Blue for Shelton, returned as the DP on Hollywood Homicide. Consistent with the Southern California sunshine—the lively credit sequence is set to "I Love Cali (In the Summertime)" performed by Roscoe—Peterson gives everything a bright, colorful look with good contrast and a minimum of shadow, even in night scenes. Sony has provided Mill Creek with a clean source and a good quality transfer that is detailed and sharp and does not appear to suffer from untoward digital processing to sharpen edges or remove grain. The black levels look right, the contrast doesn't wash out shadow detail, and the colors are appropriately saturated. Although the average bitrate of 19.00 Mbps seems low, I didn't observe any obvious artifacting, probably because long stretches of the film involve conversations with little excess motion in the frame. That, plus the black space created by the 2.40:1 aspect ratio, probably conserved enough overall bandwidth for demanding sequences like the intense car chase (much of it against traffic), the opening club shootout and the final confrontations between the heros and the main bad guys.

Hollywood Homicide Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's original 5.1 track is presented in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1. It's an effective mix that rises to the big moments, like the panicking crowd when the members of H2OClick are shot in Julius' club and the zooming, careening traffic when Gavilan and Calden take off in pursuit of a suspect through the streets of Beverly Hills (and beyond). Dialogue is clear, dynamic range is wide, and bass extension is deep, which is especially important for the strongly rap-flavored soundtrack that keeps poor Gavilan so off-balance. The instrumental underscore is credited to Alex Wurman, who scored Play It to the Bone for Shelton and recently did the soundtrack for the first season of The Newsroom on HBO.

Hollywood Homicide Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The disc has no extras for Hollywood Homicide. Sony's 2003 DVD contained a director's commentary, the film's trailer and trailers for other Sony films.

Hollywood Homicide Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ron Shelton received screenwriting and story credit for another 2003 buddy cop movie that was released the month after Hollywood Homicide and made a lot more money. Shelton's bank account probably did better from that Jerry Bruckheimer production, Bad Boys II, but in an interview ten years later, he admitted that he'd never seen the finished product and had barely watched the film to which it was a sequel. If not for his name in the credits, you'd never know he was involved. Some jobs are done for the paycheck, and others bear an unmistakable artistic stamp. For better or worse, Hollywood Homicide is clearly a Ron Shelton film. For my taste, that's definitely a plus, but I leave the individual decision to the viewer. The Blu-ray, though bare bones, is a quality presentation.