Plot
Sergeant Joe Gavilan (Ford) is a financially strapped LAPD homicide detective who for several years has been moonlighting as a real estate broker. His partner is K.C. Calden (Hartnett), a much younger officer who teaches yoga on the side and wants to be an actor.
The duo is assigned to investigate the murders of four men, members of a rap group called H2OClick who were gunned down in a nightclub by two unidentified assailants. While investigating, the detectives discover there had been a witness who escaped unnoticed. Gavilan is distracted by a looming real estate deal that may be the key to getting out of debt, while Calden pursues his acting dreams by trying to attract talent agents.
Unknown to the detectives, Antoine Sartain (Washington), the manager of H2OClick, has his head of security eliminate the two hitmen they had hired to carry out the murders of H2OClick. Gavilan and Calden initially had believed the murders to be gang-related, but Gavilan sees the bodies of the hitmen at the morgue and concludes they were killed by someone else.
Gavilan learns from an undercover officer (Phillips) posing as a prostitute that the songwriter for H2OClick, a man named K-Roc, has gone missing. Gavilan believes he is the murder witness. It proves difficult to track down K-Roc when they cannot determine his real name. K-Roc is later revealed to be Oliver Robideaux, the son of Olivia Robideaux (Knight), a former Motown singer.
The arrival of Lieutenant Bennie "The Executioner" Macko (Greenwood) from Internal Affairs at headquarters unnerves Gavilan -— they have a bad history ever since Gavilan proved him wrong on a case years ago. Gavilan's love interest, a psychic named Ruby (Olin), used to date Macko, who is intent on taking away both Gavilan and Calden's badges, going so far as to try to frame the two for corruption.
Gavilan and Calden form a closer bond. Calden reveals that his father Danny Calden, also a cop, had been mysteriously gunned down during a sting operation gone wrong. The elder Calden's partner at the time, Leroy Wasley, was implicated in the murder, but later released on lack of evidence.
K-Roc is tracked to his home, where Olivia Robideaux professes her son's innocence and claims Antoine Sartain, the manager of the group, was the real culprit. Sartain had been embezzling money from H2OClick, whose members found out and threatened to hire lawyers to nullify their contracts. Sartain hired the hitmen as a "lesson" to all clients of his record label. It also turns out that Sartain's head of security is none other than Leroy Wasley, and that Macko was in cahoots with him, as well.
The detectives prepare to arrest Sartain and Wasley, but cannot locate them. Gavilan enlists the help of Ruby, who, after a brief meditating session, leads him and Calden to a Beverly Hills clothing store. Sartain and his men, including Wasley, happen to drive by the store, so Gavilan and Calden follow in a wild car chase through the streets of Los Angeles.
After a crash, and subsequent shootout in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Gavilan catches up with Sartain, while Calden pursues Wasley. During a struggle, Gavilan manages to throw Sartain off the top of a building, killing him. Meanwhile, Calden traps Wasley in an alley, and Wasley draws a gun on Calden. Wasley admits to killing the detective's father. Calden utilizes his acting skills to beg and plead for Wasley to spare him, which distracts Wasley enough, just as he is about the pull the trigger, for Calden to knock the gun away and wound Wasley with his duty weapon. Overcoming his desire to kill the man who murdered his father, Calden arrests him.
Gavilan and Calden reunite as LAPD officers swarm the scene in the background. Macko appears and calls for the arrests of the two officers, but Macko is arrested for his association with Wasley and Sartain.
The case over, Gavilan and Ruby (wearing a dress she bought at that clothing store) attend a production of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which Calden is furthering his acting ambitions by playing Stanley Kowalski. It is implied that Gavilan has successfully brokered the real estate deal. Cops to the end, though, both receive calls from headquarters, causing them to leave after the play.
Read more about this topic: Hollywood Homicide
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—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
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