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K-9

K-9 (1989)

April. 28,1989
|
6
|
PG-13
| Action Comedy Crime

The extravagant cop Michael Dooley needs some help to fight a drug dealer who has tried to kill him. A "friend" gives him a dog named Jerry Lee (Officer Lewis), who has been trained to smell drugs. With his help, Dooley sets out to put his enemy behind the bars, but Jerry Lee has a personality of his own and works only when he wants to. On the other hand, the dog is quite good at destroying Dooley's car, house and sex-life...

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Reviews

Kaelan Mccaffrey
1989/04/28

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

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Deanna
1989/04/29

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

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Philippa
1989/04/30

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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Sarita Rafferty
1989/05/01

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

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billypilgrim23
1989/05/02

Soulless piece of hackery concerning a particularly unsympathetic police-man who gets a dog as a partner. Every single "joke" in the movie is a cliché that's been done a gazillion times before. Belushi cannot act and fails to prevent his real-life shitty personality from manifesting on screen. Couple that with generic directing, crappy script, mediocre acting- it were better had this movie never been made. A total turd of a film.Belushi is a real jack-ass.The dog was OK.

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FlashCallahan
1989/05/03

The extravagant cop Michael Dooley needs some help to fight a drug dealer who has tried to kill him.A "friend" gives him a dog named Jerry Lee, who has been trained to smell drugs.With his help, Dooley sets out to put his enemy behind the bars, but Jerry Lee has a personality of his own and works only when he wants to.On the other hand, the dog is quite good at destroying Dooley's car, house and sex-life...This was one of those films that I absolutely loved as a kid, and could watch it over and over, because who wouldn't like a film where a dog can say 'oh oh'? Take the element of the dog away, and you pretty much have a dog of a story though. It's basically the buddy cop movie with a twist, and thanks to Belushi being quite likable, the film manages to be funny whenever the dog is off screen.Support is okay, but it looks like they are just letting the two get on with it.It's harmless stuff, one of those movies you will find on TV one Sunday afternoon, and still be able to enjoy it through rose tinted specs.Still miles better than Turner and Hooch.

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Spikeopath
1989/05/04

Pursuing crime boss Lyman, maverick cop Dooley is tipped over the edge when a false lead ends up with an attempt on his life. Determined to finally get his man, Dooley enlists the help of a police dog called Jerry Lee {The Killer} to hopefully sniff out the drugs that he knows Lyman is involved in. Trouble is is that Dooley has no idea how to treat a dog and Jerry Lee is more of a maverick cop than he is!Given its low rating, it's hard to know what sort of film the critics and general movie watching public were expecting with this one. Since a buddy buddy cop movie staring James Belushi and a German Shepherd Dog doesn't say anything other than the film we actually get. By the time of K-9s release it was evident what sort of film would Belushi's staple money earner, the kind that called for him to play the cocky quipper with a glint in his eye. Belushi would try to abandon his buffoonery roles post Curly Sue {who could blame him after that mess really?}, and attempt to be a more dramatic, action type actor. It wouldn't work, his excellent performances in Oliver Stone's Salvador and The Principal {the latter also criminally undervalued} were long behind him. So you hear the name James Belushi in relation to films and you by and large think larking about action comedy. Coming a year after Red Heat {it looks like Belushi is wearing the same suit from that film in this one!}, K-9 delivers exactly what it screamed out it would from the off.Technically the film has very few things to recommend, but as a family friendly action comedy it has much to laud. The interplay between man and dog is great fun, they are both members of the animal kingdom, they both got needs and they are both great cops. Yes we are never in any doubt that after a troubled start, this pairing are going to become firm friends, and that ultimately, by hook, crook and paw, they will get the job done. Belushi has a nice line in facial comedy and he also never comes up short in delivering quips with panache, and a confidence that often belies the trouble his characters are often in. The dog too is hilarious {hats of to animal handler Robert Zides}. Courtesy of writers Steven Siegel & Scott Myers, this is a dog that eats chili and wants to vie with Dooley for Tracy's affections {Mel Harris as Dooley's frustrated girlfriend}. It makes for a number of funny set-ups that both man and beast revel at being involved in. Kevin Tighe as villain Lyman is a touch under written, and the obligatory emotional heart tugger moment now looks like over egging the formula pudding. But this is harmless witty fun that gets in and does its job without proclaiming to be anything other than what it is. 7/10

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JoeytheBrit
1989/05/05

One of a number of films from the late-eighties that created a short-lived sub-genre of the buddy movie by making one of the buddies a mutt, K-9 stars John Belushi's kid brother as the wisecracking maverick cop who gets saddled with an eccentric police Alsatian called Jerry Lee while trying to bring down a drugs baron.Of course, the beauty of creating a sub-genre like this is that you don't actually have to change your storyline: the dog could be a professional criminal cuffed to the cop, a novelist carrying out research, or a dental equipment salesman who has unwittingly scuppered the cop's arrest. The changes required to the plot are minor and all can be applied to the same template. The big advantage upon which this film plays is that dogs are cute while most humans are not… Given that it covers no new ground, K-9 is reasonably entertaining without containing the requisite number of laughs to be considered a major success. The relationship between Belushi and his charge follows the predictable route from mutual belligerence to guarded respect to genuine affection, and includes all the situations you would expect from the given scenario: Dog refuses to obey instructions, dog disrupts man's love life, dog poops in man's house, etc. It's all carried out with a breezy sense of fun that is matched by Belushi's performance. Nobody is taking anything seriously here, and this is evident on the screen and probably makes K-9 a better film than it might otherwise have been. Belushi makes a likable hero – he looked for a while as if he would step out from his brother's shadow and become a major film comedian but his career has dipped since the eighties. An even worse fate awaited his canine co-star, a real police dog, who died from gunshot wounds while apprehending a suspect a couple of years after the movie was shot.Director Rod Daniel manages to blend the action and comedy sequences quite well while remaining strictly within parameters set by those who've gone before him and, although he displays a reasonably assured touch here, his workmanlike approach might explain why his film career has also gone nowhere. All in all, K-9 largely manages to avoid the excessive sentimentality that normally plagues this kind of man-and-beast story, and is pleasing enough entertainment for those who don't set the bar too high.

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