Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
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...
K-9 is a fairly standard late-80s buddy cop comedy that swaps the human partner for a German Shepherd. The plot is formulaic crime/drug dealer fare with no real surprises, and the cinematography is workmanlike TV-movie level. James Belushi brings genuine charm and sells the comedy reasonably well, elevating the acting slightly above average. The novelty is low — the dog-partner gimmick was already familiar territory (Turner & Hooch came out the same year), and K-9 plays it broadly and predictably. The ending resolves without much dramatic weight or inventiveness. A serviceable, mildly entertaining comedy that doesn't distinguish itself in any meaningful way.