Turner & Hooch

T&H isn't art, but it's surprisingly good ''arf'' - and I know what I like. [28 July 1989, p.5D]

Hanks, it seems, is good enough to survive any film. The dog, too, works wonders with a standard script.

As a bunch, the film makers have created the sort of mystery story that might well puzzle a 12-year-old who had never read a mystery story before and wasn't paying attention anyway, and the sort of love story that 12-year-olds might throw away to read the mystery story, along with the sort of dog story many dogs would actually enjoy--if the pages were edible...Luckily the team of Hanks and Beasley are around to save the show, tell a few snappy stories, dance a few licks, chase a few crooks, make you laugh, make you cry. Who needs writers?

Five people were credited with co-writing TURNER & HOOCH, and rarely have so many labored to so little effect. There's barely enough to make up an agreeable made-for-TV movie in this film.

A couple of vaguely amusing monologues apart, this lame, tame variation on the buddy-buddy comic cop thriller is flaccid, predictable, and as sickeningly anthropomorphic as one might fear.

Man bites dog in Turner & Hooch, the new Tom Hanks vehicle, and it's a tender moment. But there's precious little else going on in this tired little action comedy, which is so bereft of ideas that it winds up borrowing from Lady and the Tramp, among other familiar sources. [28 July 1989, p.G5]

It's amazing how much slobber $ 20-million will buy. [28 July 1989, p.6]

Tom Hanks is an obsessive-compulsive cop who takes in a filthy, slobbish French Mastiff when it's the only witness to a murder. Basically The Odd Couple with a dog. It's predictable and formulaic to the bone, but hits a strange nerve that allows us to overlook its shortcomings and appreciate the sweetness of the ride. Hanks is largely to thank for that, at the top of his game very early in his A-list career. Though a few not-so-surprising supporting actors pop in from time to time (Reginald VelJohnson as a policeman? What a shock!), it's almost entirely a one-man show that sails beyond expectations on the merits of his lone performance. In fact, the closest competition is Beasley the dog, who's absurdly emotive and personable throughout the film. He and Hanks make for a great team, as silly as that might sound, and it's easy to tell that a lot of their best scenes were ad-libs that miraculously avoided the cutting room floor. Funny, bittersweet movie magic that really has no business being as moving as it is.

Turner and Hooch is not the best comedy around but it's entertaining and for the most part most of it fits well with the next scene like a jigsaw puzzle. It's very funny in some places as the dog destroys Tom Hanks's vinyl records and rips stuff from out of the fridge and messes his house up while Tom Hanks goes shopping. The action scenes were okay but nothing too great so this for me is an average film.

Back when Mr hanks took any role to make a start and it shows feels very rushed.

Tom Hanks' worst movie, with a script by five writers spoiling the broth, a romance with zero chemistry, and far too sad an ending for a family film.