Ron Shelton’s 2003 action-comedy Hollywood Homicide is a weird artifact of early 2000s cinema. Honestly, if you look at the cast of Hollywood Homicide on paper, it looks like a guaranteed billion-dollar blockbuster or at least an Oscar contender. You have Harrison Ford at the tail end of his peak "grumpy but charming" era. You have Josh Hartnett when he was basically the biggest heartthrob on the planet. Then you throw in a supporting roster that includes everyone from Master P to Gladys Knight and even a cameo by Smokey Robinson.
It should have worked.
The movie follows Joe Gavilan (Ford) and K.C. Calden (Hartnett), two L.A. detectives who are so distracted by their side hustles that solving a high-profile mass murder at a nightclub feels like an inconvenience. Gavilan is a struggling real estate agent trying to offload a "dog" of a property, and Calden is an aspiring actor who teaches yoga on the side. It’s a quintessential L.A. story. But while the film itself received a lukewarm reception—mostly because it couldn't decide if it was a gritty procedural or a slapstick comedy—the chemistry (or lack thereof) among the cast remains a fascinating study in Hollywood dynamics.
Harrison Ford as Joe Gavilan: The Real Estate Detective
By 2003, Harrison Ford was done with the high-octane stunts of Indiana Jones for a while and was leaning into a more cynical, weary persona. Joe Gavilan is perhaps the most "Harrison Ford" character ever written. He’s grumpy. He’s hungry. He’s constantly on his cell phone trying to close a real estate deal while literal bullets are flying.
There’s a legendary rumor—corroborated by various set reports at the time—that Ford and Hartnett did not get along. Like, at all. They reportedly wouldn't look at each other during vehicle scenes. If you watch the movie through that lens, the friction between the veteran cop and the rookie becomes way more interesting. It wasn't just acting; it was genuine annoyance. Ford’s performance is anchored by this palpable sense of "I’m too old for this," which works perfectly for a guy trying to sell a multi-million dollar mansion while investigating the "Sartain" murder case.
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Josh Hartnett: Yoga, Acting, and Deadbeat Dads
Josh Hartnett was in a strange place in 2003. He had just come off Black Hawk Down and Pearl Harbor. He was the "it" boy. In the cast of Hollywood Homicide, Hartnett plays K.C. Calden, a guy who clearly doesn't want to be a cop. He’s only doing it because his father was a legendary detective who died in the line of duty.
Hartnett brings a certain "zen" energy that clashes violently with Ford’s frantic real estate energy. His character spends half the movie rehearsing lines for a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. It’s absurd. You have a scene where he’s literally interrogating a witness while doing a Marlon Brando impression. It’s the kind of performance that people either find hilarious or incredibly grating. Looking back, Hartnett’s choice to play the character as a distracted millennial (before that was even a common term) was actually pretty ahead of its time.
The Supporting Players: A Who's Who of 2000s Pop Culture
This is where the movie gets truly bizarre. The supporting cast of Hollywood Homicide is a fever dream of cameos and character actors.
Bruce Greenwood as Bennie Macko
Bruce Greenwood plays the "internal affairs" antagonist, Bennie Macko. He’s the guy trying to take Ford down. Greenwood is one of those actors who makes everything better just by showing up. He plays Macko with a sniveling, bureaucratic malice that makes you want to root for the corrupt, real-estate-selling heroes.
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Isaiah Washington and the Homicide Squad
Isaiah Washington plays Antoine Sartain, the primary antagonist and record label mogul. It’s a role that leans heavily into the "Death Row Records" era aesthetic of the early 2000s. Along with him, you have Lolita Davidovich as Cleo Ricard, a psychic who helps (and sleeps with) Gavilan.
The Music Legends
- Gladys Knight: She plays Nana Sloane, the mother of one of the suspects. Seeing a literal soul legend in a buddy-cop movie is jarring but great.
- Master P (Percy Miller): He plays Julius Armas. This was right at the height of No Limit Records' cultural saturation.
- Smokey Robinson: He has a tiny cameo as a cab driver. Why? Because it’s a movie about Hollywood.
Why the Chemistry Felt Off
Critics at the time, including Roger Ebert, noted that the movie felt like two different films stitched together. One was a serious investigation into a quadruple homicide. The other was a comedy about a guy trying to sell a house with a leaking roof.
The cast of Hollywood Homicide suffered from this tonal whiplash. Ford was playing a comedy. Hartnett was playing a character study. The villains were playing a straight-up thriller. When you mix those ingredients, you get a mess. But you also get something unique. There is a scene where Ford is chasing a suspect through a mall and stops to ask a shopkeeper about the price of a lamp. That is peak Ron Shelton writing. Shelton, who gave us Bull Durham and White Men Can't Jump, is obsessed with the "mundane" parts of high-stakes jobs. He cares more about the characters' side-hustles than the actual murder mystery.
Behind the Scenes Tension
It's no secret now that the production was troubled. Hartnett later admitted in interviews that there were "difficulties" on set. When you have an established icon like Harrison Ford and a rising star like Josh Hartnett, egos are going to clash. Ford reportedly called Hartnett a "punk," and Hartnett called Ford an "old man."
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This tension is visible on screen. In most buddy-cop movies, like Lethal Weapon or Rush Hour, the goal is for the two leads to eventually bond. In Hollywood Homicide, they barely seem to like each other by the time the credits roll. They are colleagues who tolerate each other for the sake of a paycheck. In a way, that’s actually more realistic than most Hollywood movies, even if it didn't make for a "feel-good" cinematic experience.
The Legacy of the Film
Is Hollywood Homicide a "good" movie? Probably not in the traditional sense. It’s uneven and way too long at 116 minutes. But the cast of Hollywood Homicide makes it endlessly watchable for fans of the era. It captures a specific moment in Los Angeles history—the transition from the gritty 90s into the hyper-commercialized 2000s.
The film also serves as a reminder of a time when studios would throw $75 million at an original buddy-cop script that wasn't based on a comic book or a reboot. It was a "star vehicle" in the truest sense. Even if the vehicle crashed, the stars were fascinating to watch.
What You Should Do Next
If you’re planning to revisit this film or watch it for the first time, don't go in expecting Heat or Seven. Approach it as a time capsule.
- Watch for the Background Details: The movie is packed with real L.A. locations, from the Venice boardwalk to the Hollywood hills. It’s a great "L.A. postcard" film.
- Focus on the Side Hustles: Ignore the murder plot. It’s boring. The real "plot" is whether Harrison Ford will sell that house. Once you realize the murder is just a distraction from his real estate career, the movie becomes a hilarious satire.
- Check out Ron Shelton’s Other Work: If you find the dialogue snappy but the pacing weird, watch Bull Durham. It shows what this director can do when he’s perfectly in sync with his cast.
- Look for the Cameos: See if you can spot Eric Idle (from Monty Python) as a celebrity being arrested. The movie is full of these "wait, is that...?" moments.
Ultimately, the cast of Hollywood Homicide represents a missed opportunity, but also a hilarious glimpse into the eccentricities of show business. It’s a movie about people who are bored by their own movie. That alone makes it worth a look.