Turner & Hooch

Why does Tom Hanks so often work with unworthy material? Why has Roger Spottiswoode never fulfilled the promise of Under Fire? Small-town cop Turner (Hanks) reluctantly adopts an ugly, scene-stealing monster dog when its ancient owner (McIntire) is murdered. Keen (for no clear reason) to prevent the beast from being put down, and convinced it will prove a key witness in his investigation of the mystery (if such it can be called), Turner lets Hooch demolish his home, imperil his blossoming romance with a local vet, and turn Rin Tin Tin. 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. From the moment when Hooch first appears to the strains of Strauss' 'Also sprach Zarathustra', the gags can be smelt a mile off, and the thriller elements are as hackneyed as an episode of Murder She Wrote.