K-9 or spoken as canine is heart warming (?) story about a dog. No the story isn't just about a dog but his relationship with his human.
The movie starts off with Michael Dooley (played by James Belushi) on a stake out when he decided to use another car's cellphone to call his girlfriend. This ruse prevented his death when assassins in a helicopter pumped his car with bullets. He reported the same to his supervising officer and requests to replace the car that was totaled. His Lieutenant told him he can have a new car if he brings in a partner for which Dooley rejects. Just to comply he accepted to accept a police dog to be his partner. Thinking that a dog will not be much of a hassle for him to go after his bad guy.
Then came his police partner dog, Jerry Lee (played by a german shepherd). If you think Dooley is a hard case, Jerry too is one. Both had misunderstanding early on and both had to make compromises mostly on the part of Dooley.
A lot of things happen then Tracy (played by Mel Harris), Dooley's girlfriend was kidnapped by Lyman (played by Kevin Tighe) the villain in this movie. He is suggesting to Dooley to cool down for one night to let Lyman's drug shipment pass without his intervention. Being a nutcase, he storms into Lyman's party and draws out his gun to the shock of the latter's guests. Police was called in and Dooley was arrested. He explained to his supervising officer that what he did was just a ploy so that Lyman would think he would be in jail and not be able to intercept his drug shipment. His Lieutenant didn't buy his story and he was really arrested this time around. On the way to the station, Dooley with the help of Jerry, was able to commandeer the police car he was in and proceeds straight to one of Lyman's henchmen. He was able to intercept the drugs and went to Lyman's meeting place so that he can arrange for a swap for Tracy. While in the act of swapping, a firefight started between the two and Lyman tried to escape. Jerry tried to pursue him but he was shot by Lyman. Seeing that Jerry was shot, Dooley tries to shoot Lyman but instead he was shot by his drug associates. Seeing that Lyman is dead, Dooley brings Jerry to a hospital and after a few discussions, the doctor (not a veterinarian) reluctantly agreed to operate on a dog.
Jerry survives the operation and Dooley treated him to a vacation in Vegas taking along his girlfriend Tracy and a female poodle, presumably Jerry's date.
Now the movie is a typical 1989 feel good movie. It also was the time when competing or rival film companies would make similar films, pitting their movies at the box office. K-9 has to fight against Turner and Hooch (starring Tom Hanks with a big dog as well). A tall order to push Tom Hanks in theaters but James Belushi is no push over either.
James Belushi is know for his comedies and in this movie he lowers down his antics to be in a semi action buddy cop movie. His role here has a weak character development in the beginning that we can't really relate to him why he doesn't want a partner. If there was one, then we might have missed it, it wasn't that prominent to begin with. It might have been in the script that we see his stereotyped was having an inferiority complex against a dog who bosses him around and the dog always getting the upper hand. Or maybe this is the comedy part, the dog always winning.
Although with a faulty script, it has a simple plot that you can fast forward the film and go right at 3/4 of this and still you won't miss a beat. What we liked though in the movie are two things 1) the scenes between Dooley and Jerry butting their heads against each other only to become close friends in the end. This was done nicely and we can see both of them melding into each other and 2) Dooley's crying in the Emergency Room when Jerry was taken into the operating room. At first you think why is he crying over a dog? After he spews out some dialogues, we find that he has considered Jerry not as a dog but a partner. We have seen how they developed their relationship and seeing him cry made us want to cry as well.
If you like dogs, and James Belushi, then you can watch this film. If you are here to see some police action, steer away from this movie. Currently being shown in Netflix and to see a glimpse of this, click on the trailer below.
