K9 vs TURNER & HOOCH + MAN WITH ONE RED SHOE

title: K9 year: 1989 cast: James Belushi, Kevin Tighe rating: ***

IN THIS CORNER: James Belushi is a cop; Jerry Lee is a dog. Both are tough but one is not only tougher – and a lot more stubborn. Belushi’s maverick cop Dooley needs some help busting big time drug dealer Kevin Tighe (has he played a good guy since EMERGENCY?). For help he gets a drug sniffing police dog (a German Sheppard) and both have plenty in common. Jerry Lee, with devil-horn ears and a frazzled countenance, wants nothing to do with human beings. Residing in the last cage of the kennel, he’s no team player just like Dooley, whose typical screaming police captain can’t straighten him out. Much of the fun deals with Dooley bonding with… or attempting to bond with… the troubled mutt – who aids in beating up seedy villains – while Dooley plays by his own book. There are plenty of action scenes and the kind of hardboiled humor you’d see in a lesser Walter Hill film (like RAW DEAL). When Dooley’s sexy girlfriend – the only person Jerry Lee listens to – gets kidnapped it’s up to the human/dog team to save the girl and bust the villains. A pretty fun time overall with a happy ending for animal lovers…

title: TURNER AND HOOCH year: 1989 cast: Tom Hanks, Craig T. Nelson rating: **1/2

AND IN THIS CORNER: Tom Hanks is Scott Turner, a neat nick with a perfectly kept apartment and his life planned out. As a cop he’s about to upgrade from the dreary small town to a big city beat – but his plans are curtailed when an old-timer connection, who owns a really scary Pit Bull, is murdered by… And that’s the catch. The only “witness” is the dog, Hooch, with a taste for human necks and a penchant for tearing up anything in his path. The teamup between our titular characters is only really funny in one scene – these shown in the trailer: Jump cuts of Turner talking to Hooch during a long boring stakeout. Hilarious stuff as Hanks, displaying his usual spontaneous charm, comments on his canine partner’s slobber. The rest of the film – having to do with Hooch turning his new master’s apartment to shreds; Turner’s bland love story with a veterinarian; and a predictable secret villain behind all the dirty deeds – gets dog tired: resulting in a rushed ending with one merit… it ends in a quick ninety minutes. THE RESULT: K9 KO’s T&H. TRIVIA: Ironically both movies came out in 1989, both had villains known primarily for TV shows, and both scored a 5.7 on imdb. And James Belushi co-starred in the Tom Hanks vehicle THE MAN WITH ONE RED SHOE years before the doggie double feature.

archive review: THE MAN WITH ONE RED SHOE year: 1983 cast: Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher rating: ***

Tom Hanks and Carrie Fisher

Before Tom Hanks became an Oscar winning serious actor he was a creatively comedic one, and this quirky espionage fits within that first tier of Hanks cinema. Much like his latter film, FORREST GUMP, he’s a character who’s every move is mistaken for genius, but for a very different, and far more involving, reason...

One side of the CIA set him up as a target for the other, and going about his everyday life, Tom’s breezy symphony violinist character is mistaken for a double-agent and he’s never, till the very end, aware of the situation. The comedy doesn't rely on one-liners but accidental situations; like Popeye sleepwalking on construction girders and never falling, he’s teflon to impending doom. The only drawback is the ever-moving action gets tiresome, but not enough to mar the quick-paced fun backed by Dabney Coleman, Carrie Fisher in a sexy and flipped-out role serving as the polar opposite of dream girl love interest Lori Singer, and James Belushi as Tom's crazy best buddy.