Hollywood Homicide.

Review #1075: Hollywood Homicide.

Cast: 
Harrison Ford (Detective-Sergeant Joseph "Joe" Gavilan), Josh Hartnett (Detective K. C. Calden), Lena Olin (Ruby), Bruce Greenwood (Lieutenant Bernard "Bennie" Macko), Isaiah Washington (Antoine Sartain), Lolita Davidovich (Cleo Ricard), Keith David (Leon), Master P (Julius Armas), Gladys Knight (Olivia Robidoux), and Martin Landau (Jerry Duran) Directed by Ron Shelton (#381 - Cobb)

Review: 
If you have a film with two actors who seem to want to make the best of their time on screen and elicit some sort of chemistry with each other, you'll likely have a good time. It's a shame that is not the case with this movie, however. Ford and Hartnett manage to star in a film where they don't seem to share any kind of chemistry with each other, not eliciting many particularly amusing moments nor anything that seems remotely connecting. Ford does a decent job performance wise, but he doesn't seem to be the best type for this role, seeming a bit out of place that might've been better suited for someone like John Travolta (who originally was meant to star in the role), particularly with the real estate "dealmaking" parts. Hartnett doesn't fair much better, somehow looking too young to play this detective role while also seeming to be the wrong fit to go along with Ford, seeming a bit too relaxed for this part - and the parts with him playing a would-be actor also not hitting the notes correctly either. In any case, they don't make for a particularly inspiring duo. Washington doesn't particularly inspire much as the villain, mostly because the plot-line doesn't give him much room to actually seem compelling (especially with the climax), whereas Greenwood sells his adversarial role and scenes with Ford. Olin does a kooky but serviceable job, with her parts with Ford being nothing too special. The other members of the cast are all okay at best. It might interest you to note this was written by Shelton and Robert Souza, a former homicide detective in the LAPD Hollywood Division who also happened to moonlight as a real estate broker in his latter years. I'll give the film credit for having some sort of semblance of reality, but I didn't find the end product to be too particularly effective. The numerous subplots and how things seem to just connect out of thin air makes for a convenient but somewhat tiresome pace, complete with a somewhat long but somewhat effective climatic chase sequence. There isn't too much to the action, but it will likely be pleasing enough. The film never seems to get itself into high gear, seemingly stuck in a loop of a mediocre story and a buddy duo that doesn't live up to carrying the movie. The end product is something that can be mildly enjoyable as a late night flick watch, but it won't be anything regarded as anything too good in its action or comedy. Take this misfire for what it's worth.

Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Cobb.

Review #381: Cobb.

Cast
Tommy Lee Jones (Ty Cobb), Robert Wuhl (Al Stump), Lolita Davidovich (Ramona), Lou Myers (Willie), William Utay (Jameson), J. Kenneth Campbell (William Herschel Cobb), and Rhoda Griffis (Amanda Chitwood Cobb) Directed by Ron Shelton.

Review
Watching a film based off Cobb: The Life and Times of the Meanest Man in Baseball by Al Stump is a strange thing, since the film isn't as sensational and fictionalized as the book is now known to be. Take the film for what it is: A movie, with some sort of fact but also some sort of fiction. 

Tyrus Raymond Cobb was a legend in baseball, and judging from the film, you might think that. Or you might wonder if the (somewhat questionable) writer of the book about Cobb about him fabricated the events in some ways. Cobb once described himself like this: "In legend I am a sadistic, slashing, swashbuckling despot who waged war in the guise of sport.". The film sadly does not show a lot of baseball moments from his career, focusing more on Stump and Cobb, which I find to be a bit disappointing because the film while it does try to focus on the biography of Cobb and the writing, it probably should have tried to be more about him and not just him and his biographer. Nonetheless, Jones pulls off a brutal performance of Cobb. It may either turn you off from the film or be the thing that glues the film together. Wuhl is all right, reminding me of a writer, but whether a good or bad one is questionable. It's noisy, its mean and dark, but that's what makes the film what it is, it doesn't try to be light on things, it does what it wants to accomplish, the good and the bad. Whether the viewer likes it or not is up to you.

Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.