46 - Hollywood Homicide

Connection To AIR FORCE ONE - Harrison Ford

There's always ultimately one of two choices to go with when picking a film as the connection, especially if it's one I haven't seen - do I go for a film that's known to be at least decent or something that's known to be a bit poo-poo (sorry for the harsh language), I think sometimes that decision lies in the last few films I have watched, if there is a lot badness just been then it needs something awesome to remind me why I like film and the bad film sometimes lies in the curiosity of how bad it might be or what it's reputation is in the so-bad it's good field

Hollywood Homicide stars Hollywood legend Harrison Ford (star of some of the awesome-ist films ever) and not Hollywood Legend Josh Hartnett (actually the star of one of my least favourite films of all time - I won't say what it is but I am anxious to revisit it and do it on here) and reading critical ratings for the film it seems to have bad marks but not quite bad enough (the 30% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes seem to suggest some critics liked it - Roger Ebert liked it apparently), all I can say is that I'm prepared to give this film a chance...

For starters, I can't help but think before multiple rewrites there was a much sharper film in there, but that's just a guess maybe it was like this all along - as a film it had fleeting shining moments but ultimately didn't do too much for me. I did like the idea initially of two cops - both moonlighting in different professions, one as a real estate broker (Harrison Ford) and the other a yoga teacher/wannabe actor (Josh Hartnett), and the two are assigned to investigate a night club shooting involving a rap group.

Ford and Hartnett don't have too bad chemistry if I'm honest and there are times the film threatens to take off, but as an action-comedy it's rarely that funny, and the action is... okay, Isaiah Washington and Dwight Yoakam made decent villains though I think they deserved a better movie around them.

Overall, it's not awful it's just most of the time largely uninspired, maybe if they went the approach of biting satire on Hollywood and rap music we could have had something but alas this is all we get.

43 - Freaky Friday (1976)

Connection To BODY SLAM - John Astin

I can't believe I've never got around to watching the original Freaky Friday before, I really enjoy the body swap movies I've seen an whole bunch of them from Like Father Like Son, Vice Versa or 18 Again, to the 2 Freaky Friday remakes - the TV one from 1995 with Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffmann and the 2003 one with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan (who contrary to popular belief is a talented actress, it's just her life is messed up at the moment), so yeah seeing the original Freaky Friday as been a long-time coming.

Freaky Friday if you don't know the plot as the tomboyish daughter (Foster) swapping bodies with her housewife mother (Barbara Harris) on a Friday (duh), where they both learn each other's lives are not quite so easy.

Freaky Friday is likable 70's family Disney fare, like all the better body swap movies (including in some ways something like Face/Off) both the performers excel in either role, where they are being themselves or pretending to be each other trapped in each others bodies. Like Bugsy Malone, Foster even around other child performers showed she was in a class of her own even in family films but none of the young performers are bad in the movie to be fair, there's also some fun adult support from John Astin as the dad.

I think the 2003 version got the dynamic better between the two leads, something about their relationship in that one just rang... truer, but I think the relationship with the brother is a bit better done here and also in this one you can't help thinking there should have been an early scene where they interacted with each other in each others bodies but hey it's a kids film at the end of the day.

Overall, a fun movie, I did enjoy it all the way through thanks to a storyline I liked and two great performances by the leads.