The Karate Dog (2004) (TV)

Director:

Bob Clark

Writers:

Steven Paul (screenplay)
Gregory Poppen (writer)

Release Date:

5 May 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Family

Plot:

When LAPD computer expert Peter Fowler investigates the killing of an old man in Chinatown, he finds the only witness is his dog...

Plot Keywords:

Dog | Lapd | Witness | Talking Dog | Police Officer

Cast

Jon Voight	...	Hamilton Cage
Simon Rex	...	Det. Peter Fowler
Jaime Pressly	...	Ashley Wilkens
Pat Morita	...	Chin Li
Thomas Kretschmann	...	Gerber
Ron Lester	...	Edward Cage
Chevy Chase	...	Cho-Cho (voice)
Bonnie Paul	...	Margaret Cage
Nicollette Sheridan	...	White Cat (voice)
Lori Petty	...	Colar
Gary Chalk	...	Brunelli (as Garry Chalk)
Diego Wallraff	...	Gonzales
Bill Croft	...	Locke
Ed Anders	...	Wolfgang
Dagmar Midcap	...	TV Reporter

Also Known As:

Cho Cho (USA) (working title)
Unleashed (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for martial arts action/violence and some suggestive content.

Country:

Germany | USA

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:PG | Spain:T | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Crystal Sky Worldwide

Movie Connections:

References Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)

wow

A dog suspended from the ceiling by a cable attached to a harness. Pat Morita pretending to be Chinese. A dog coaching a human on what to say to his dinner date through an earpiece from the bushes. A police detective who owns a million dollar house on the San Francisco bay. A Dalmatian that plays the cello. A fat kid with an earring. A terrier djing the party and scratching on the turntables. A woman who never closes her mouth. A movie named KARATE dog where everyone is supposed to be doing Chinese martial arts. A bumbling, overzealous dog catcher who keeps all the animals in a Guantanamo bay styled facility where they scrawl "woof" and other graffiti on the wall.

Sound great already? It only gets better: A dog takes on 5 human assassins who just defeated his human master and beats them into submission using the martial prowess he achieved spending much of his life as his masters top student. In a flurry of punches and kicks he renders all of them unconscious and/or sets their butt on fire. He bites the leader on the wrist (who is wearing a mask) and spends the rest of the movie trying to solve the mystery of the bitten leader by looking for visual clues such as a band-aids on the wrist etc. Apparently, the greatest canine martial artist to ever live made some sort of Faustian deal where he traded in his canine sense of smell for the ability to roundhouse kick people who are over 6 feet tall.

An all dog band called "the puppies". A repairman disguise kit for infiltrating hi-tech corporate headquarters that says "barker industries" on the back. A Trojan'd compact disc that literally blows up every computer within a 50 foot radius and cuts the building's power when you stick it in a CD drive on a PC.

This movie is great.

Underlying it all is a malicious thread of species-ism in the form of dog-cat hatred. At every opportunity defamatory and slanderous anti-feline sentiments are expressed, implied, and presented in a manner that reveals the deep seated prejudice of the screen writer. The only human minorities in the movie are two moron policemen who constantly make lowbrow, lewd innuendos at every given opportunity, referencing bestiality. Their ethnicity? Surprise! LATINO.

If this wasn't already some of the most exciting cinema of the new millennium, add to that the physics defying martial choreography, featuring mouth-breathing blonde bombshells doing two legged back kicks after running up the wall and septuagenarian sport board breaking.

It concerns me deeply that English speaking children are shown mindless drivel like this without consideration of the lasting emotional and spiritual injury that could be incurred.

The only disappointment? On the cover of the DVD it shows the dog wearing a headband. The dog NEVER wears a headband ONCE in the whole movie.

In summation: the greatest film ever made.