With his cop companion shot and killed by terrorists, Reno The Dog pairs up with tough cop Jake in thwarting the criminal organization.With his cop companion shot and killed by terrorists, Reno The Dog pairs up with tough cop Jake in thwarting the criminal organization.With his cop companion shot and killed by terrorists, Reno The Dog pairs up with tough cop Jake in thwarting the criminal organization.
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A straight-faced comedy in which Chuck Norris is partnered with a dog. The dog continually gets credit for being a better law enforcement officer than Chuck is. They battle a white supremacist organization who are planning a terrorist attack on San Diego.
This is my favorite out of all the buddy-cop dog, action pictures. I would rather watch this than Turner & Hooch, K-9, or Beethoven, because it has some great fight scenes and plenty of action.
It also has comedy and is a fun movie to watch. OK, I have to admit that this is not Chuck's best movie but it is still fun! I have not been disappointed in any of the Norris movies. Some of them will be classics in time.
Martial arts and Chuck Norris...what more do you want! 8 out of 10 stars
This is my favorite out of all the buddy-cop dog, action pictures. I would rather watch this than Turner & Hooch, K-9, or Beethoven, because it has some great fight scenes and plenty of action.
It also has comedy and is a fun movie to watch. OK, I have to admit that this is not Chuck's best movie but it is still fun! I have not been disappointed in any of the Norris movies. Some of them will be classics in time.
Martial arts and Chuck Norris...what more do you want! 8 out of 10 stars
Chuck Norris partnered up with a dog
a shaggy dog
a decorated police dog. Comedy gold! Coming late to party, as this novelty was popular in the late eighties with films like "Turner and Hooch" and "K-9". Aaron Norris would direct his brother in this asininely light-hearted (well not all the time) vehicle that would see him going after some very incompetent militant white-supremacists looking to make an explosion. And didn't Aaron Norris like his explosions with cars flying off the ground! One thing though these bad guys were hopeless. I use to think the white-supremacists in Eastwood's "Pink Cadillac" were the most inept I've watched, but there's another contender with "Top Dog". Norris' combination with the dog Reno makes for many amusingly charming situations. "You ate my chicken you mangy mutt!" But really it Norris tackling Neo Nazi white power is where the fun is at. Watch as he simply pummels these bad guys (which takes almost an hour), in something that turns out like a live action loony toons outing. However before the pummelling begins these sour face bad guys simply like to rant about white power and stand around looking mean while constantly nodding at each other. Norris is one busy copper. An arrogant, sloppy and gung-ho one too. Let's not forget a mummy's boy. His lead-up work in trying to figure out what's going on is rather hilarious, because everything feels like its made up on the spot hoping the clues would pop up than researching it. Then again if that happened we wouldn't get the heart-stopping climax of tension, laughs and someone riding a bike as fast as they can. The cast are all game with Michele Lamar Richards, Clyde Kusatsu, Timothy Bottoms, Francesco Quinn and John Kerry. Norris phones it in, while it's Reno who steals the show. There's even time mid-way through for Reno to take a break from the investigation to go to a dog show and mess about?! Aaron's direction is sturdy, but plain despite the acrobats where there's a cheap TV feel about it.
"Sit your rights down".
"Sit your rights down".
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs
Oh dear.Dire with a capital D,this one.
Jake Fellon (Chuck Norris) is a veteran police cop who is brought back in from suspension to thwart a racist organization who are plotting to set off a bomb at an impending peace conference.His new partner:a dog,who,inexplicably,rescued a baby from a burning building.
Against the backdrop of this tasteless plot outline,a fine concept to try and wrangle laughs out of,we are also left to contend with a drab script and Norris,who has enough trouble turning in a decent performance,let alone trying to be funny.
The action's another hinderance.Because,like the rest of the film,it stinks.What is it in Norris movies,especially in his newer ones,where one of the bad guys always seems to go 'uh oh' in that really dumb,cornball way whenever he's about to perform a front hand punch on their faces?
If this poor man's Turner & Hooch isn't Norris's worst film,it's certainly a fu*king strong contender.*
Oh dear.Dire with a capital D,this one.
Jake Fellon (Chuck Norris) is a veteran police cop who is brought back in from suspension to thwart a racist organization who are plotting to set off a bomb at an impending peace conference.His new partner:a dog,who,inexplicably,rescued a baby from a burning building.
Against the backdrop of this tasteless plot outline,a fine concept to try and wrangle laughs out of,we are also left to contend with a drab script and Norris,who has enough trouble turning in a decent performance,let alone trying to be funny.
The action's another hinderance.Because,like the rest of the film,it stinks.What is it in Norris movies,especially in his newer ones,where one of the bad guys always seems to go 'uh oh' in that really dumb,cornball way whenever he's about to perform a front hand punch on their faces?
If this poor man's Turner & Hooch isn't Norris's worst film,it's certainly a fu*king strong contender.*
Not a nail in Chuck Norris' career, as one reviewer put it. I come to the defense of this nice little film for the strong message it carries. Anyone who was a fan of "Walker, Texas Ranger" can certainly see the core values of Chuck Norris in this film. Mister Norris is a man of great integrity and strong human values. He accepts diversity and from watching him, tolerates no bigotry at all. That's the message I appreciated so much in watching top dog, although the vehicle used could have been better executed. In a world where diversity should be the rule of the day, and learning from our past a virtue, Mister Norris, like a lot of us, sees the need to remind people of our past and what we should strive for in the future. It's one of the reasons I regularly watched Walker, to see the triumph of good over evil. More films like this, with a strong message are needed. Film is a medium, not only to entertain, but to educate us. That education could be for good or bad. Mister Norris chose the good, and I applaud him for that, and his integrity.
Both movies, Turner and Hooch and K-9 were good films. Comedies with both a good story and good actors in the cast. Top Dog is a recycled version of something trying to market itself to be another K-9 or Turner and Hooch king of movie. Top Dog lacked a strong actor such as Tom Hanks or great comedy like in K-9. Chuck Norris, who has done a number of excellent action films and went off to do a successful television series (Walker: Texas Ranger), could not hold this film together. For a child's movie, maybe, this film could be considered something decent, but it failed to find an audience older than 13. It is obvious that the studios wanted a summer comedy with some karate style action. What they produced was a mistake.
Did you know
- TriviaThe film opened just 9 days after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The plot features a gang of militant white supremacists who intend to detonate a bomb in a public place. The film took in $300 on its opening night in Oklahoma. The distributors were forced to release a statement disassociating the film from the real-life incident.
- GoofsThe C4 in the trunk of the car blew up when shot. In reality, shooting the C4 would have had no effect.
- Quotes
Jake Wilder: Got the warrant?
Policeman: It didn't come through.
Jake Wilder: What do you mean it didn't come through?
Policeman: I don't know, Jake, they said something about probable cause.
Jake Wilder: Well, I'm going in anyway.
- Alternate versionsParts of the soundtrack have been altered on the 2000 Artisan DVD.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Cinema Snob: Top Dog (2015)
- SoundtracksDog Love
Written by Susan Marder
- How long is Top Dog?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $6,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $5,093,707
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $2,164,381
- Apr 30, 1995
- Gross worldwide
- $5,093,707
- Runtime1 hour 26 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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