It comes as no surprise that Steve Martin, who has acted in the past opposite such items as a brain and a series of vintage film clips, should decide here to co-star alongside an entire city, in this instance Los Angeles (hence the name).
What is a surprise is that despite Martin's reteaming with writer Daniel Melnick, this film has only half the wit and romance of their last collaboration, Roxanne. Martin is Harris Telemacher, a TV weatherman in a city where the temperature rarely drops below 72°F, thus allowing him to pre-tape his broadcasts.
His life is filled with Beverly Hills cliches — his girlfriend Trudi (Henner) spends her time shopping and endlessly doing lunch while he drives everywhere, even to his next door neighbour's house — until he falls in love with English journalist Sara (Tennant).
The path of love is not smooth, however, and Harris finds himself with three women instead of one — Trudi, Sara and young Valley Girl Sandee (Parker). To complicate things further, he is fired from his job and discovers an electronic freeway sign that sends him — and him alone — cryptic messages.
It all starts well enough as a satire of the madness that is life in Los Angeles, but with the introduction of the Field Of Dreams-like sign and the continually irritating appearance of Richard E. Grant as Sara's ex-husband, things take a distinctly downward turn that a cameo from Rick Moranis as an English-accented grave-digger (cue Hamlet parody) does little to reverse.