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Harrison Ford plays Joe Gavilan, an experienced and resourceful Detective Sergeant in Hollywood's homicide division. With alimony flowing to several ex-wives and children to support, he can't seem to get out from under his growing debts. Years ago, to supplement his income, he obtained a real estate broker's license, opened his own one-man agency, bought an inexpensive fixer-upper, did the work himself, and has been trading up ever since. He's now stuck with an expensive white elephant that just doesn't seem to move.

Gavilan's new partner of only several months is Detective K.C. Calden (Josh Hartnett). Calden is a less than enthusiastic cop; he may be on the force because his dad had been on the force (and had been killed on the job years before). His real ambition is to become an actor. While he's working toward that goal, he teaches Yoga to lovely young women who are frequently delighted to enjoy private sessions of Tantric Sex. It's Gavilan's and Calden's sidelines that provide much of the humor. As director and co- screenwriter Ron Shelton points out in his commentary, this is a film about selling a house and becoming an actor, not a film about solving a murder. Not that there isn't some serious killing...

The film opens in a hip-hop club at Hollywood and Vine. Two assassins with automatic weapons open fire on a performing group, wiping them out. Gavilan and Calden are assigned the case and they work their way through a credible plot to uncover the guilty parties. Their job is made that much more difficult when they become targets of an investigation by Internal Affairs Lieutenant Bennie Macko (Bruce Greenwood). It seems that Gavilan has been consulting with Cleo Ricard (Lolita Davidovich) - a Hollywood Madam surrogate and an unregistered informant - and his relationship with prostitutes is the initial justification for the investigation.

Unknown to Macko, Gavilan's social life is actually doing rather well. He's seeing an attractive radio psychic named Ruby (Lena Olin), whose unique talents will help solve the crime. That a psychic plays into the solution is merely an indication of the lighthearted nature of the flick. The filmmakers even transform the film cliche of the big car chase. As Gavilan and Calden hurtle through busy California streets in hot pursuit of the bad guys, Gavilan is constantly on the phone with a buyer for a six million dollar home being sold by film director Jerry Duran (Martin Landau). Very droll.

Director Ron Shelton, who co-wrote the screenplay with ex-homicide detective and ex-real estate agent Robert Souza, maintains a delicate balance between gentle humor and violence. (The story is based on Souza's experiences.) Several clever cameos are included: Lou Diamond Phillips plays a cop in drag as an undercover hooker named Wanda; Gladys Knight is seen in her first film role as Olivia Robidoux, the mother of a material witness; Eric Idle flashes by as a Hollywood filmmaker arrested for soliciting; Frank Sinatra Jr. is briefly onscreen as attorney Marty Wheeler; and Robert Wagner is in the wrong place at the wrong time, playing himself at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, about to have his hands immortalized in cement.

Ford is quite laid back here, offering what may be his best comic performance. He does manage to perform most of his own stunts and is involved in a climatic chase and fight. I must comment that when he has to run, Ford appears uncomfortable. It's been widely reported that during the making of this film he had a groin injury suffered during a car stunt gone wrong and we might be seeing some lingering effects. Regardless, I'll put my money on Ford to pull off one more Indy film (but I really don't want to see how Indy was reduced to the battered and scarred old man depicted in the Young Indiana Jones Series).

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film's theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1 is presented in anamorphic video. This is a very fine transfer from Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment. Edge halos are highly suppressed, leaving us with great small object detail and superior fine textures. Flesh tones are spot-on, indicating accurate color balance. Chroma noise and smearing are both absent. Shadow detail is excellent. The film is free of defects and grain is all but completely suppressed. I didn't notice any mosquito noise or blocking artifacts. I'm most appreciative of Columbia Tristar's efforts to minimize halos, for without them we're left with a very film-like presentation.

A second transfer is available on a second layer. This full screen presentation is accessible from a menu page. Since this film was shot with an anamorphic process rather than an open matte process, the full screen transfer appears to be pan and scan.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is excellent. Exceptionally deep bass is present - apparent in both musical source elements and explosive sound effects - requiring an exceptional subwoofer to do it justice. Gunfire has a satisfying, visceral feel, unaffected by annoying compression. Like Gavilan, I just don't get rap or hip-hop, and there are far more such tracks mixed into the score than I found necessary. (I was also a little disturbed by the filmmakers' association of that style of music with violence and crime.) Alex Wurman's original music, a fusion of jazz and orchestral, comes through loud and clear, with pleasing fidelity that lacks the artificial processing of the source tracks. Surround effects are frequent and effective, but the emphasis is on non-directional cues, so disable EX decoding to avoid a center surround sound field collapse. Despite the busy soundtrack, the dialog remains distortion- free and intelligible throughout.

The alternative language track is in French Dolby Surround 2.0. Subtitles are provided in French and English, for which Closed Captions are also included.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Director Ron Shelton may be heard in a scene-specific, feature- length commentary. He quietly describes the shoot, discussing his approach and the challenges of some of the locations. He touches on his cast members and talks about Ford doing most of his own stunts. Hartnett, responding to an unspoken challenge, followed suit. Too often Shelton becomes involved in the plot or characters and offer comments that are neither insightful nor illuminating. If I had to characterize his monolog, I'd have to say that it is merely average.

Selected Filmographies are provided for Ron Shelton, Robert Souza, Harrison Ford, and Josh Harnett. Trailers, in an unpredictable mix of anamorphic, full screen, and non-anamorphic widescreen, are included for Hollywood Homicide, Air Force One, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Devil's Own, Radio, and The Missing (an interesting looking upcoming flick from Ron Howard). The 116-minute feature is organized into twenty-eight chapters.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts