No urban police department is free of episodic troubles but the LAPD has a case as chronic as smokers' cough. Good cops, bad cops and villains with SOCAL written all over their faces and inflected in every line.
But, hey, it's summer and Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett deliver some good laughs and a pretty hot high speed smash 'em up chase through Hollywood in this cop/buddies film.
The genre is pretty familiar to all. Very formulaic. You get a wiser older cop with flaws and/or attitude and a young acolyte with flaws and/or attitude. The novelty here is that while many cops moonlight to pay their bills, Ford's a detective who doesn't let hot police work interfere with his on and off real estate brokerage business. With incessant calls for his private business on a cell phone that rings with "My Girl," Ford delivers a good performance with wry humor and a surprising degree of athleticism (he's sixty but you'd never know it).
Josh Hartnett, as the very junior homicide investigator, also has a sideline, actually two. He earnestly pursues an acting career while running a meditation mill for lissome young lovelies who, predictably, fall into his arms and bed. But he's a good cop.
The actual homicide story is instantly familiar and its development devoid of surprises. So what? It's summer! I can't see art films EVERY day.
6/10. Can't give it more than that but it was entertaining for both me and my teenage son who especially appreciated the urban road rampage.
