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Hooch bizarrely enough, is the only witness to the murder of his owner, who was good friends with Tom Hanks' detective who now suspects the nasty nearby fish factory of various nefarious activities. Hanks is uptight and a cleanliness freak, but when it becomes clear that Hooch is his only lead, he does what he's got to do and takes him in. Cue the predictable mishaps that occur when a big, bouncy dog which is basically a huge, slavering tongue, moves in with a man who has an almost anal obsession with mess and rubbish.

There's nothing remotely original about 'Turner and Hooch'. In fact the idea that the police would pin all their hopes on solving the case on a dog, is downright stupid. But somehow it works for an undemanding, fitfully entertaining 90 minutes. And yes, that is probably down to the dog lover in me winning out over the snooty film critic. Because as much as I'd love to bash a film as ridiculous and cliched as this, I just don't have the heart to do so. Simply because the dog here is really, really funny and has the sort of face to melt any dog lover's heart.

He's the star of the show and that sums up 'Turner and Hooch' exactly. Your tolerance of the film will depend on your ability to be entertained by a huge cuddle of a dog.

Saying that, Tom Hanks does do some good work here. Hanks is not a chameleonic actor, he doesn't disappear inside his roles, but he does something much more subtle than that. Essentially Hanks uses his everyman quality to ground every role he does in some reality. Hanks as an astronaut? He's believable because he has that everyman quality. Hanks as a hitman? He's believable because of that everyman quality that he has. Ditto here. He avoids making the relationship between Turner and Hooch stupid because he approaches it with a quiet sincerity, rendering the relationship believable and above cliches.

And that means by the end, you, like me, will be blubbing like a little girl.

Look, you knew before you read this review if you liked the movie or not. It's Tom Hanks with a dog, so make of it what you will. There's thousands of better movies out there, but you know what? There's thousands worse too.

link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=3614&reviewer=293
originally posted: 04/13/05 20:26:58
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