FilmBlather.com

The marketing for Hollywood Homicide has ensured that those who would really appreciate it won't bother seeing it. It's being pushed as a buddy cop comedy when, in fact, it's a subtle and ingenious parody of buddy cop comedies and renegade cop movies, a satire that keeps its satiric elements lurking in the background. There is also, apparently, a lot of stuff that will go over your head unless you live in Hollywood, and indeed I felt like I was missing some pieces of the puzzle. But my place of residence notwithstanding, this is one of the year's smartest comedies.

Like most entrants into the genre, the movie pairs two actors who are opposites, though in less obvious ways than usual. Harrison Ford, tough, unflappable, wisecracking action hero is paired with Josh Hartnett, lanky, mild and slightly befuddled new kid on the block. Complications: apparently, LAPD cops need more than one job to support themselves, and thus Ford's Joe Gavilan moonlights as a realtor and Hartnett's K.C. Calden is a beloved yoga instructor. Further, K.C. doesn't want to be a cop at all; he wants to be an actor, and he has an upcoming showcase performance playing Marlon Brando's role in "A Streetcar Named Desire" (phone conversation: "Yeah, I'll be playing the Brando part... Hello?").

Joe has earned the ire of his supervisor, Bennie Macko (Bruce Greenwood) with his open sneering and defiance. Bennie wants to send Joe to the slammer, but the worst thing he has on him is "comingling of funds." Meanwhile, Joe is happily having sex with Bennie's wife Ruby (Lena Olin), and though he knows that she is married, he is unaware of her husband's identity. It doesn't help that he will go bankrupt unless he can either earn a massive commission on a house sale or sell his "Mt. Olympus" abode, "on the corner of Hercules and, I shit you not, Achilles." Thankfully, K.C. knows a Hollywood producer (Martin Landau) who is desperate to sell his house for not less than 5.7 million dollars.

All of these seemingly disparate elements come more or less together when Joe and K.C. are called in to investigate the murder of a promising rap group named "H2OKlick," about to hit it big under the guardianship of famed producer Sartain (Isaiah Washington). Mysteriously, the guy who wrote "H2OKlick"'s songs has disappeared as well, and our heroes later find out that there have been other recent murders of promising young rap stars. Joe and K.C. must investigate, as well as sell houses and scream "Stella!"

Hollywood Homicide isn't a satire with a message or even a real sense of purpose, other than to nudge us in the ribs as it indulges in buddy movie conventions a little too much. For a while, in fact, director Ron Shelton's intentions are unclear, and the only thing I knew was that this was one of the weirdest movies I had seen in months. Simple police procedural scenes were being interrupted with impromptu real estate pitches, and then we see Ford wearing aviator glasses and munching a donut during a sex scene.

Then we see the climax, and it all makes sense. First, there's an interrogation scene that goes not at all the way we expect. Then, Ford and Hartnett chase a creepy Cadillac SUV with the former constantly fielding phone calls about a house he is trying to save. Then they crash their car and split up; KC hijacks a minivan with a family in it, while Ford has to toss increasingly elderly passengers from their vehicles before finally succeeding in grabbing a bicycle. Then there's a very, very sensational rooftop fight sequence that culminates in the villain jumping a gap about two feet wide and ending up hanging by his fingernails. It's really very funny.

Shelton carefully builds his jokes through the entire movie, and provides spectacular payoffs. Certain scenes reach remarkable heights of silliness; there's a chase through bridges and waterways that goes on for so long that we have to laugh, and when I saw Josh Hartnett perform Streetcar, I nearly had a conniption. The advertising suggests something primitive and formulaic, but Hollywood Homicide is sneaky, strange and sometimes brilliant.