In this enjoyable comedy, Tom Hanks stars as dapper California detective Scott Turner, who teams up with slobbering dog Hooch to solve a drug-related murder. The script is sometimes short on laughs, but British director Roger Spottiswoode keeps the action jogging along, and gives Hanks room to display the kind of comic timing that established his Hollywood reputation in films such as Splash! and The Money Pit. Hanks is well served by his canine co-star, but Mare Winningham is wasted as the love interest.

Detective Scott Turner has three days left in the local police department before he moves to a bigger city to get some 'real' cases—not just misdemeanors. When Amos Reed is murdered, Scott sets himself on the case, but the closest thing to a witness to the murder is Reed's dog, Hooch, which Scott has to take care of—to avoid Hooch being 'put to sleep'.