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- <text id=89TT2072>
- <title>
- Aug. 07, 1989: Dog Days
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Aug. 07, 1989 Diane Sawyer:Is She Worth It?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- CINEMA, Page 54
- Dog Days
- </hdr><body>
- <p>By Richard Sshickel
- </p>
- <qt> <l>TURNER & HOOCH</l>
- <l>Directed by Roger Spottiswoode</l>
- <l>Screenplay by Dennis Shryack, Michael Blodgett,</l>
- <l>Daniel Petrie Jr., Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.</l>
- </qt>
- <p> Scott Turner (Tom Hanks) is a tidy bundle of compulsions,
- the kind of man who gets off on an improved filing system and
- looks forward to flossing his teeth. Hooch (a mastiff named
- Beasley) is a messy bundle of sinew and instinct, the kind of
- dog who lives to wreck your living room and looks forward to
- sinking his teeth into the necks of people he doesn't like.
- Also, he drools a lot.
- </p>
- <p> This is obviously not Lassie Come Home; it is the odd
- couple as crime busters. Turner is a small-town detective, an
- apt occupation for a man of his temperament. He has placed
- Hooch, the only witness to his former owner's murder, in
- protective custody. As the movie's none-too-ambitious mystery
- plot unfolds, it is Hooch, ferociously loyal to both his former
- master and his new one, who does most of the protecting. He's
- obviously never heard of Miranda rights. Not that he is a
- one-note character: he introduces Turner to romance with the
- local veterinarian (Mare Winningham), and in moments of repose
- he has a watchful sobriety that becomes a comment on the human
- propensity to rush around needlessly. If food, sex or loyalty
- is not at issue, what's all the excitement about?
- </p>
- <p> Hanks, a wonderfully natural and unpretentious actor, may
- be the only star capable of holding his own against this
- competition, even stealing a scene or two from his furry friend.
- In the end, Turner tames Hooch down, Hooch loosens Turner up,
- and this little nothing of a movie -- sweeter and smarter than
- it has a right to be -- may cheer you on through the, uh, dog
- days.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-