Top Dog (DVD 2002)

When Reno the Dog's cop companion, Lou Swanson (Carmine Caridi), is killed by a 'white supremacist' group of terrorists, he gets teamed up with tough cop Jake Wilder (Chuck Norris) to bring the bad guys down.

As you may have noticed, my movie summary for "Top Dog" was done in one whole sentence. That's because the story itself is quite simple for all audiences. It's the classic formula: good guys vs. bad guys. There are no `in-betweens' or `switching' of the good and bad so it's easy to keep track of who is who.

Unfortunately, though the classic formula `good vs. bad' most often works well, "Top Dog" had more `bad moviemaking' going for it than any `good moviemaking' to make this movie worth watching. Of course, it IS entertaining, but how far will one go to be `just' entertained?

Chuck Norris, never really being known for his acting abilities, seems at times to be enjoying himself but on the whole, he just lets everything flow on its own. Not once does he try to make his character his own, unique one. But that could be because the director does not really give him a chance to really do anything.

Instead, the audience is made to suffer somewhat by having to endure a bigger version of `Benji' for the hero of the film. There were mixed reviews on Amazon as to whether they liked Reno or not but in my opinion, Reno just did not impress. While, no doubt about it, we are continually made to believe that Reno is very intelligent (and sometimes he IS), there are times where he's just annoying. The ending was too contrived and moments where Reno is supposed to be cute just doesn't come out well. To sum up, everything Reno does is nothing special. If you've seen other `dog' movies like "K-19" or "Turner and Hooch", there is nothing in "Top Dog" which you haven't seen before.

The music was also badly done, especially the scene where the terrorists are trying to take out Chuck Norris at his house. The whole scene is supposed to be exciting, but the music utterly throws all suspense out. And... the terrorists are wearing clown masks?!?!

Ultimately, I believe that the main thing that went wrong with "Top Dog" is that the filmmakers couldn't quite make up their minds whether to make this a movie for children or for adults. While rated PG-13, the movie seems to be aimed for a younger audiences with having Reno the Dog as a main character. But at the same time, having terrorists and some violence would have children turning away, especially the murder of Lou Swanson. Adults however will probably be repelled from the storyline and the fact of having Reno the Dog in the story.

So, in conclusion, "Top Dog" can hardly be considered a classic so I really won't put this on my `recommend to others' list. My advice, if you still want to watch the movie, probably better to rent than actually buy it. Trust me, it's not worth it. The only thing that might interest viewers is watching Chuck Norris `do his thing', or shall we say, using his fighting skills. But definitely not top-notch stuff compared to other kung fu movies.