Hollywood Homicide, which opens today, is a fence-sitter.

Some of the time, it wants to be a slapstick buddy-cop comedy. Other times, it wants to be a dark drama about corruption in both the rap music industry and the Los Angeles Police Department.

Ron Shelton, who directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Robert Souza, has proven he can do both with class and panache. Sadly, as Hollywood Homicide proves, he isn't able to do it in the same movie.

As he proved in Bull Durham and Tin Cup, Shelton has a knack for creating characters who bicker and fight their way into friendship.

This time he's put together veteran LAPD homicide detective Joe Gavilan (Harrison Ford) and his rookie partner K.C. Calden (Josh Hartnett). The new kid can't shoot straight, and he's a hot-shot driver, a slick womanizer and a fancy dresser.

There may have been a time when Gavilan was one or more of these, but not anymore. He's tired, cash-strapped and thoroughly rumpled, a sexier version of Columbo.

The big joke in Hollywood Homicide is that both Gavilan and Calden are moonlighting.

In Gavilan's case, he sells real estate to stay afloat.

Calden has a yoga studio so he can bed as many beautiful women as possible, and he's studying acting so he can become a stage and film star.

There are some good laughs when Gavilan ends up trying to sell homes to crime witnesses and when Calden rehearses the Marlon Brando role in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.

The problem is that these guys are supposed to be solving murders and trying to save the lives of a few more rappers.

That's hardly funny business, and the film only really works whenever Ford and Hartnett turn into Keystone Kops.

The first 30 minutes of Hollywood Homicide is a deadly dull and plodding murder investigation.

The final 30 minutes comprises two hilarious chase sequences juxtaposed to show Gavilan chasing one of the villains as Calden pursues the other.

If he didn't have enough on his plate with the rap murders, Shelton throws in an investigation of Gavilan by his archnemesis Bennie Macko (a glowering Bruce Greenwood). Seems Gavilan made a fool of Macko a long time ago and now that the guy's in Internal Affairs, he's getting revenge for this and for the fact that Gavilan is bedding Macko's wife (Lena Olin).

Both Ford and Hartnett are funny, but never together.

They have minimal comic chemistry when they interact with each other, yet they can be hilarious when they're in scenes with other people.

They actually create more dramatic tension, and one can actually sense the frustration Gavilan has in sharing his car and job with Calden.

Then again, maybe it's the frustration Ford has with sharing the bill and the screen with Hartnett.

Either way, these guys don't seem comfortable with each other.

(This film is rated 14-A)

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