TURNER & HOOCH (1989) ** There have been far fewer actual talking dogs in the history of the world, than slobbering ones, and so a gross under-representation in cinematic history is here somewhat corrected. And of course there have also been more beer-drinking dogs than talking ones also, and so, again. One might be forced to-or indeed readily concede-that to the general public a slobbering dog is not as immediately appealing as a talking one, but they do…eventually…manage to demonstrate much of what is best in man's best friend. Which is more difficult to do than amazing us by having one making glib remarks about cats and such. Playing second-fiddle to the slobbering dog is a generally more composed Tom Hanks, the one of the early years where comedy was recognized as his long suit, and no one was silly enough to compare him to any seriously great actor. I kind of miss that Tom Hanks, though it must be agreed that his talents do go beyond that paradigm…a more open question is quite how far. This isn't nearly as fun as Bachelor Party , and the dog can't carry Tom the way that Daryl Hannah and John Candy did in Splash , but in the film's best scene…a blind-sided "dialogue"with the non-talking dog with absolutely nothing else happening…you can see the developing skills that will allow Tom to carry an entire feature-length film doing pretty much the same thing with a basketball in Cast Away. It's two films really: a longer, slower one focusing mainly on silliness and the dog but not much else; and then a closing half hour or so of more action than fits, particularly for the children that would have enjoyed the first part the most.
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