Hollywood Homicide escapes with the dubious distinction of not being nearly as bad as I had expected it to be. Overall it's not an altogether unpleasant way to spend two hours, but if you're a film critic, or just someone who is mildly bothered by plotlines with 25 threads that can neatly be drawn together in a happy little bow at the end of the film where all the bad guys get shot, or cuffed, then you may not enjoy it as much as your average Joe.

Speaking of Joe, Harrison Ford plays Joe Gavilan, an L.A. homicide detective who spends a good bit of his on and off duty time trying to make it as a real estate agent. A avocation that has brought the character far more grief than rewards. Ford gives a winning performance here, playing a character more bemused and worn-out than cynical and hard-boiled, a man whose lopsided grin/grimace got that way because it has often been used during moments when smiling seemed the only acceptable reaction to the chaos in his life. We immediately sympathize with Joe Gavilan, in large part because we already love Harrison Ford.

His partner, the much younger K.C. Calden (Josh Hartnett), like everyone in L.A., really wants to be an actor. Writer director Ron Shelton (Dark Blue, White Men Can't Jump), wants us to understand that K.C. has followed his father's career choice, perhaps to learn more about the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death. Still his moderate ineptitude as a cop seems an indication that perhaps a career in the arts, or at least something other than police work, might be for the best.

Gavilan and Calden are assigned to investigate the murders of four up-and-coming rappers. This leads them through the seamy underbelly of the entertainment industry and ultimately is a pretty nasty indictment of the music biz. Speaking of the music biz, alot of the fun in this film is in pointing out the music stars in the film: Dwight Yoakum, Master P, Andre 3000, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Frank Sinatra Jr.
Also interesting is pointing out the actors in this movie whose involvement in the plot is either never explained at all, or are completely wasted: Lolita Davidovich, Robert Wagner, Lou Diamond Phillips, Eric Idle, and Lena Olin.

Josh Hartnett has yet to find his footing in a good film and in Hollywood Homicide, he's more or less along for the ride, neither adding nor detracting. He holds his own against Ford the veteran, and maybe that's saying something. But while Gavilan feels like he couldn't have been played by anyone except Ford, any young male actor could have played Hartnett's role. Calden also carries on a very lucrative Yoga business that is populated by dozens of lithe and beautiful women who ostensibly show up to class because they want to bed the young stud.

There are some charming moments in this film, enough to make me hesitate before going thumbs down - but the comedy is forced the story is convoluted and then all resolved with an ending that makes "pat" sound like the most understated word in the dictionary. Obviously the biggest problem with Hollywood Homicide is that it never really decides what kind of movie it wants to be. Buddy-cop? Hollywood spoof? Crime drama? It has elements of all three, but none of them strong enough to elevate the film from being lightweight, unfocused and thoroughly forgettable