Director: Ron Shelton
Stars: Harrison Ford, Josh Hartnett, Lena Olin, Bruce Greenwood, Martin Landau, Keith David
Detectivs Joe Gavilan (Ford) and Kasey Calden (Hartnett) investigate murders in downtown L.A., however, when not solving crimes they also moonlight as a real estate agent and a yoga instructor who aspires to be an actor, respectively. When they’re investigating the murder of a rap group they delve into the murky side of the recording industry, while also looking for opportunities to broker property deals and find auditions.
I actually enjoyed this movie a lot. It is a comedy but the humor is very dry and subtle, and I can imagine that it’s not going to appeal to some people because of that. It’s played very straight and I think if you didn’t know going in that this was a comedy you may be a little confused, and I think that’s probably why this film doesn’t have a better rating on IMDB. I really liked it though, I thought the humor was sharp and the mystery was actually engaging. The action was brutal in places (probably confusing people further as to the genre in which it should fit), but I like things that merge different genres together and I thought this did good service to both the comedy and the action genres. There were some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments as absurd situations happened,
There was a lot of meta-commentary on the Hollywood industry as well, as everyone is self-obsessed and they all have other priorities other than their main responsibilities. It’s hilarious to see Ford’s frustration as a murder gets in the way of a real estate sale. The humor is underplayed and the actors commit to this, never straying into anything too over-the-top.
In some senses this film is a little too clever for its own good, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think it’s a solid film in the action-comedy-buddy cop genre. It certainly deserves to be ranked high on IMDB and I can’t believe it has a lowly 5.3 score, Definitely check it out if you like the type of humor I described, I promise you won’t regret it.
