Turner & Hooch ***½ (1989, Tom Hanks, Mare Winningham, Craig T Nelson) – Classic Movie Review 3824

Tom Hanks stars in Roger Spottiswoode’s sweet and amusing, sit-up-and-beg-to-love-me 1989 comedy as meticulous and fastidious cop Detective Scott Turner who investigates a brutal murder with the help of a big, messy mutt called Hooch (Beasley the dog), a French mastiff.

Written by Dennis Shryack, Michael Blodgett (screenplay and story), Daniel Petrie Jnr, Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jnr (screenplay), this is a genially amiable, broadly comic, odd-couple buddy caper. Hanks unleashes lots of laughs and proves that he is a pedigree performer, while the slobbering dog is huggably revolting or possibly revoltingly huggable.

When the messy and uneven screenplay eventually runs out of steam, Hanks’s charming personality and comic dynamism keep the movie going, though his co-star Mare Winningham doesn’t get much of a look in as Hanks’s veterinarian love interest, Dr Emily Carson. Both Hanks and Beasley are pretty darned cute and adorable. They make a lovely screen (odd) couple.

Also in the cast are Craig T Nelson as Chief Howard Hyde, Reginald VelJohnson as Detective David Sutton, Scott Paulin, J C Quinn and John McIntire.

it is a PG but the TV version makes minor cuts for language (‘bastard’, ‘crap’, ‘shit’ and ‘Christ’).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3824

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