3. Detective Joe Gavilan - Hollywood Homicide (2003)
A funny thing happened when I went to write about this film; I could barely remember anything about it at all. I recalled Josh Harnett lamely playing off Ford's cop, Lena Olin as a smokin' psychic and a scene with Ford commencing on a chase via bicycle. Almost nothing beyond that, though, other than a memory of Ford completely phoning it in. After catching up with bits and pieces of it, I must confess I can see why I forgot it. This is a purely disposable movie in almost every way, despite the appearance of Ron Shelton in the directing chair and Ford as part of a buddy-cop pairing. Many of the scenes I revisited may have actually looked better on paper than they play here, so the script probably isn't the culprit; or rather, the script's construction isn't. Homicide and its characters are so generic that it's hard to be surprised or amused by almost anything that happens, which ultimately does point back to the writers. I've reached that point in the list where I'm starting to regret not adding Working Girl to the 'great' section because it's proof that Ford can handle comedy, as is the lesser-known Frisco Kid (it's not a great movie but at least Ford has good chemistry with Wilder). So many of the comedies he's attempted in the last two decades have been atrocious, largely because there's no energy behind them and no fire in the relationships. Ford is a guy who has difficulty hiding his own personal inclinations towards his work, which is why he can often be very good, intense and focused and then also be very bad, disconnected and bored in a performance. A good litmus test here is to compare this detective with the one in Witness and see how many attributes of Joe Gavilan you can remember a mere five minutes after this one ends. You can also roll out the ever faithful Gene Siskel litmus test on Homicide; it absolutely isn't as interesting as footage of the same actors having lunch together would be.