Hollywood Homicide : Movie Review


Ron Shelton fans (you know who you are) will be happy to hear that Hollywood Homicide improves on Dark Blue, the director’s failed LAPD endeavor from earlier this year. But that’s like saying white paint tastes a little better than purple paint. For the sake of your health, neither should be ingested.

As part of its tired buddy-cop routine, Homicide suggests that everyone in La La Land works one career but dreams of another. Cops want to be real estate brokers, musicians want to be actors. So it’s only appropriate that the film plays along with this concept, laboring as a police investigation by day and moonlighting as an entertainment industry spoof after hours.

At this rate, Homicide should quit its day job. Shelton coerces a handful of noteworthy performances from his cast, but does nothing with his paint-by-numbers detective story. The director would rather bite the Hollywood hand that feeds him, so he focuses his energies on showbiz jabs and leaves us with a case so basic and dull that the cops solving it can audition and show available properties in between clues.

See filmcritic.com for full review.

Author : Sean O'Connell