Taking another chance on L.A, on the streets and more specifically on the police, as in "Dark Blue", Ron Shelton, a man of multiple themes, brings a new project to the table, which is called "Hollywood Homicide". The difference between this one and the latter one is that this is Hollywood, precisely. And when the beginning credits roll, and we're shown fifty "Hollywood" signs; it's obvious that they want us to realize that. Why would it be?

The story about Ron Shelton meeting Robert Souza in the set of "Dark Blue" and them both getting together to write the script of "Hollywood Homicide", because Souza had been a cop before…Interesting. However, in the same vein, "Dark Blue" is the portrait of a cruel reality; "Hollywood Homicide" is the satire of a shallow but real reality in the end. It's Hollywood, and it was a good premise to put some fun in the crime scenes, probably to make it "more dramatic than anything seen in Hollywood".

The other elements the plot offers go from action to crime, or vice versa. They created the murderer of a rap band, so they could mess a little bit with the music business, too. There we see the producers, the groups, the "showbiz"…It's even related with theater and movies, because one of the main characters wants to be an actor; and in a decent comedic way, he's thinking about acting each time he's doing something; and he probably isn't that good.

I'm talking about K.C Calden; Josh Hartnett's character. He gives classes of movements to find the inner self. There, a lot of hot women assist and kiss him when they leave. In one scene, his partner tells him that he did for sex. "At first it was for sex, now it has become something spiritual", K.C answers, and at night, a hot woman is waiting for him in the "Jacuzzi". "How long has it been since the last time you got laid", K.C asks his partner. "It's not your business", the partner says. Then, he lets a man working as a prostitute into his car. When they discuss that, he says: "It was nothing, it was a man, a cop; a cop man".

This partner is Joe Gavilan, a pro in the police business played by a pro in the acting business. As he did with Kurt Russell in "Dark Blue", Shelton brings Harrison Ford back to the top of his game. With his character, based on writer Robert Souzas's own life, he has the best lines and he has a lot of fun. Antoine Sartain (Isaiah Washington) should be afraid of him; a man that has had sex, with Ruby (an over the top Lena Olin) and makes real estate business with producer Jerry Duran (the great Martin Landau) and Julius Armas (a correct Master P) while he's driving a car high speed. When he is told the composer of the rap group is still alive, he replies: "Somebody actually writes that s***?". He has had bad times, Bennie Macko (Bruce Greenwood) wants to get him, and in the best scene of the movie, he and K.C get interrogated. This scene is managed with camera changes between the two interrogating rooms, where in Joe's, his cell is always ringing; and in K.C's, he is "centering" himself spiritually. Joe's interrogator can't do anything, while K.C's interrogator (a woman) asks him to help her relax.

That scene stole the only laughs from me during the entire film. Keith David was also having fun in his Leo role, reprising some of the comic elements he gave to Lester Wallace in "Barbershop". More importantly, and if you were wondering, Shelton directs his actors perfectly, making a stupendous balance between the pro and the amateur, the old and the young; Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett. Their chemistry is perfect, and one of the few reasons to watch the movie. In the end, their characters are nothing else but cops, in a film that leaves a lot of plot situations unresolved, is a bit long, not funny enough, but different from the gross humor that everyone finds easy to put on paper.

The story of two cops who would rather be in real estate full time and the other an aspiring actor desperately trying to get people to see him as Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire."

Ironically, the two are great police officers. Harrison Ford as the part-time real estate agent and Josh Harnett, as the cop-aspiring actor are quite appealing in this film. Lolita Davidovich is a tramp in the know and as a change of pace, Lena Olin delivers a comic performance as a funny seer.

The last 15-20 minutes or so are phenomenal with a spectacular car chase scene through Beverly Hills. You know this is a comedy as no one gets killed in the mayhem.

The ending scene where Harnett goes Stanley in a theater production, with everyone going wrong is hilarious at best.

A pleasant change for Harrison Ford and it actually works to much of a degree.

It's Hollywood of the present day and a couple of guys come into a club with Uzis and start shooting it up. Several members of a rap group are slain. As this is a world that doesn't open up to law enforcement in general, solving this massacre is going to be tough.

But put on this Hollywood Homicide are a pair of detective partners of different generations both of whom have different other life careers. Harrison Ford has delved deeply into those get rich quick real estate schemes you see on infomercial television. He's got himself a $700,000.00 lemon on his hands right now and even LAPD's Internal Affairs is looking into him.

As for young Josh Hartnett, son of a cop killed in the line of duty, he'd really like to be an actor. He's also into new wave type religion that really drives Internal Affairs nuts when he's questioned.

The club owner Isaiah Washington who employs some LAPD cops as his security is not terribly cooperative, maybe preferring to deal with it in house in every sense of the word. It's not going to be easy for Ford and Hartnett who seem to be dealing with all of this in their spare time.

It's all the usual kind of stuff you expect in modern police comedies or dramas and this is a bit of both. I'd like to single out soul singer Gladys Knight who plays the mother of a survivor who does in fact put Hartnett and Ford on the right track. And his fans will be somewhat taken aback by Lou Diamond Phillips who has a cameo appearance as an undercover detective in full drag. Make up and wardrobe really did right by Lou.

Fans of the two lead actors should enjoy Hollywood Homicide.