Cam Bert

I'm shocked nobody has mention one of the worst gags in the movie. If it's been mentioned and I forgot I do apologise, but we have to talk about the macho marine psyche out gag. So when Teddy is informed he's going to get a partner who is a "veteran, pro, cold steel(I couldn't make out the last word)" we cut to the love child of John Rambo and John Matrix, who I can only assume would be named John something, walking up with a cigar in his mouth and shotgun in hand. Even Shaft comments "Well, well, well" only to have Whoopie show up and shove him out of the way. I know it's just a stupid joke but it drives me mad how little sense it makes. He's not Coltrane's partner because we already saw earlier that her previous partner was a kinda tubby fellow with a bad haircut. We also know he has to be a cop because when shoved he whines "Hey Coltrane" so he knows who she is to name check her. He's just a random cop dressed like a marine who shows up to a black tie fundraiser, which is clearly being let out, and the chief of police is just like "Oh, this is slightly strange but no need to worry about that I have to make sure I team up the most unlikely of buddy cops before it's too late." Where was he going and why was he there and why do the guest not seemed freaked out? Is he just that guy? Like everybody is all "Detective John is just Detective John. You can't get him to wear a uniform or carry regulation firearms. If he wasn't such a great cop we'd have fired him by now. Frankly we're a little scared what he might do." Even if this joke took place in the police station I don't think it would even make any logical sense.

Next they are bringing back the raccoon. Raccoons can talk. Talking raccoon learns to use guns. Bring back a prehistoric tree, but due to it being a non-sentient being its power of speech is limited. Guys, Theodore Rex is a prequel to Guardians of the Galaxy.

That means closer to 28 years. Doubly impressive. Wait now this is making me reconsider everything in Jurassic Park....

Let's look at this world in which the dinosaurs live. Apparently living with dinosaurs is common place now. They have their own area of town, their own clubs, and manufacturers are making clothing, cars and apartments specifically for dinosaurs. They have developed their own religion which includes bizarre death telekinesis and funeral practices. Enough of them have been murdered to create said funeral practices and a special term for dinosaur murder. They have been around long enough that the idea of a dinosaur detective was made into a comic series based on the poster in Teddy's room. Also they are so common place that there is casual racism. It is safe to say they are fully integrated into this "once upon a time in the future" world. What is mind boggling about this is that they were all created by Dr. Kane. Think about that for a second. If we assume he's the same age as Armin Mueller-Stahl then that makes him about 65. Let's also assume he wasn't a child genius but did not take a break in any of his studies. Based on average time to earn a Phd and the time it would take to create a successful clone we can safely assume he was at the youngest 27 when the first cloned dinosaur was created. This means the dinosaur clones have only been around for 38 years at the most and they've already accomplished a full religion, language, and industries! This leads me to two possible conclusions. 1. Kane made like a hundred dinosaurs clones in the first batch. He informed the world that would be cloning dinosaurs and that he engineered them to speak and have culture. Society seeing what was coming immediately went to work creating a place for the dinosaurs to exist. Once they were cloned, people quickly got over the novelty of them and relegated them to living and working in their own part of town. or 2. This is more shocking but what if dinosaurs could always talk and had their own religion and customs! When Kane cloned the first one it came out talking and everybody was shocked. Everything we thought we knew about dinosaurs was thrown out the window. So the dinosaurs just kinda went on their already ingrained instincts and what we see in the movie is just the start of them trying to integrate into society.

Yes this greatly bothered me too. While we cannot pinpoint a year that is somehow once upon a time in the future, the time of the narration can be placed. The last section is "An hour ago, two workers escaped from the New Eden compound and are racing to tell the police." So if we combine that with "Tomorrow at midnight" and the scene where "mystery meat oh and hey would you mind marrying my dad" boy asks Coltrane to meet him tomorrow and the fundraiser Kane was having we can assume this movie takes place roughly 6PM the night before the master plan... but we see Teddy having a vision of the murder while sleeping... but the rest of the scenes are at night... Maybe Teddy works nights and the Kane's fundraiser was really late... Yea you're right there is no way to make sense of any of it.

I know everybody is hung up on the sneakers in drawers, which is admittedly mind blowningly bizarre, but can we take a moment to actually talk about the shoes themselves? They are basically three individual sneakers fused together at the heel to make one three toed sneaker. Each toe is capped at the end and in its own individual compartment. Wouldn't it be easier to make it more like regular shoes and just put all the toes together? How does a T-Rex with such small arms even put shoes on? What if the guy that invented toe shoes saw this movie and was like "This gives me an idea. Each toe separate and individually housed, why aren't we doing that?"

Just for those curious, the two smaller puppets of the caterpillar and the guy in the bag were not created by the Henson team that made the dinosaurs. Rather they were made by the Chiodo brothers who also made the puppets for Team America World Police. Seeing as this is How Did This Get Made we might be more familiar with their working in creating the krites in Critters and for writing and directing the cult classic Killer Klowns From Outer Space.

I am sad to say I did not watch it on YouTube, and I can tell you that it is just shitty sound in a shitty movie.

Much like my fellow Cameron, I too agree with all this. I can't tell you how much I hated the voice acting in this. Other than just a lot of noise and mumbling his voice is way too soft and just felt out of place. Like it was the voice of a bumbling sidekick and not the lead... dinosaur clone? I understand that they wanted a sweetness and nativity to juxtapose the size and strength of a T-Rex, but it does not make for a leading... clone! Not only is his voice just wrong and out of place, but all the voice over is. The voices of the dinosaurs and headquarters are all just out of place and so affected. I guess I have to give Carol Kane some credit but that also was just... ugh.. this movie... Also what was with Bud Cort's character? Save for the regular episode I guess. I assume they'll have a lot to say.

I must have been like 12 and obsessed with dinosaurs when this movie first came out, but yet for some reason avoided this movie. Now 20 years later I'm going to gladly watch it because a podcast told me to. What's wrong with my life....

It kinda reminds me of G.I. Samurai: https://youtu.be/hTb0XGhuXmU If you don't want to waste your time it's about a self defense force squad that times slips back to feudal Japan. Both probably as good as one and other.

As I was going back through the scene to get the pictures, I was actually enjoying the inter-cutting of the two meetings. This got me thinking though. So Koller, who apparently is a known white supremest , owns a fleet of fishing boats and a manufacturing plant which is the known headquarters and meeting place of his hate group. While I could quibble that most groups meet at their headquarters that's not that part that bothered me. When we see Koller's meeting everybody is sitting in plush green velvet chairs. The giant board room table appears to be made of a fine oak. There is a green mat running down the middle with all these gold lamps atop it. However, this is a giant open space in the middle of a manufacturing plant. There are no doors just entrance ways to other parts of the plants. There are valves and scaffolding around them. We see the guide lines on the floor for assisting in moving objects around. All of this means that this area clearly is in an active part of the plant. Therefore my question is do they move the table and chairs in and out of this space for meetings or did they just pick a random part of the plant and were all "Hey guys, this space looks boardroom-esque don't you think?" It seems really fancy to get such fine table and chairs and put them in the middle of a working plant. Or is the plant not even operational? Does his fortune come from illegal activities and fishing alone? I could see this as the case because who would want to work at a factory that is the known headquarters and meeting place of a hate group.

Okay so I manged to make some screen grabs. Notice the clearly rewritten ARYAN. Also I love the the lack on capitalization on the Es (and the G in Hells Angles Bangers) but if we look at the first chalkboard all the Es are capitalized!

I guess I started writing my thing the moment after this went up. Sorry.

If anybody is going to rewatch this again please pay attention to the chalkboards during the police briefing. I wish I could have gotten a good screen grab, but it is never really all in focus or seen at one time. Here's what written as best as I can recreate it: "FOCUS TODAY SUPReMACIST GROUPs NeO NAZIS!! HeLL BANgeRS ARYAN NATION KKK - WHITE BROTeR HOOD" The thing that I love that can't be conveyed without a picture is the fact the word Aryan was clearly misspelled, erased and rewritten.

You're right! Based on all of this I'll have to redo my sequel because this case is clearly going to be dismissed and Koller will be back on the streets. Wilder will be fired for wanton disregard for the law and excessive violence. This of course will reflect poorly on Callahan's mayoral campaign what with him bringing a cop off suspension only to have that same cop conduct multiple illegal searches and acts of brutality.

Not to mention earlier in the film when he goes to the docks. He heads into the harbor masters office, identifies himself, and asks to see the log as he reaches out for it. When the harbor master, who is crooked, stops him and asks if he has a warrant Norris just rips it from his hands and says "You got a problem?" Yes many! Anybody could get a real enough looking badge and come in, a warrant not only compels you to comply but shows that this is a legit and legal search. Like FisterRoboto said it a simple requirement of law and your rights and by doing this he negates any evidence gained. However Norris takes it even a step further by ripping the page out of the log!! Not only was it an illegal search but you can throw in destruction or tempering with evidence charges on top of that right?

Excellent points. Now that I've had time to sleep and think about this, I'm more certain than ever that he will win. At first Callahan would think the whole "red scarf gate" was going to turn out badly for his campaign. I mean how could it not? However we're overlooking two important factors. One the Pope-cardinal just survived a near death experience. Two his religion preaches forgiveness. At first there is panic and an a bit of an uproar over the scarf snatching . After Pope-cardinal's helped up and told that it wasn't just any dog but it was the famous police dog Reno who was instrumental in saving unity day, he nods and forgives the dog. Callahan is all "I'm terribly sorry your holiness or somewhat holiness because after all we're not really sure what you are" and that's when the Pope-cardinal just laughs and tells gives a speech. In the speech he talks about how God has smiled upon them all that day and in the spirit of unity which is why he was there in the first place he forgives Reno and thanks Callahan for helping save the day. They shake hands and embrace. Because a dog stealing a scarf is comedy gold, the clip gets to the news but in their coverage they also include the speech and the following embrace as well. Who watches the news? Older demographics.Who votes in mayoral elections? Older demographics. With that the election is his. That or we just say screw it and in a fun twist it turns out he was running unopposed the whole time and didn't know it.

Also can somebody who lives near or has experience with the Mexican board explain that scene to me in the movie. Is that normal just to have just a couple cops and a barricade on a small road in and out of Mexico? I would have assumed there would be a bit more too it than that.

We can all agree sequels with colon titles are better than numbered ones. Unless we're talking about the delightful word play of "Looking Who's Talking Too"

Frankly I'm a little shocked that nobody mentioned what I thought was the best subplot of this movie and the one that has the most sequel potential. I am of course talking about Captain Callahan's campaign to run for mayor! He only brings it up in nearly every scene he's in. Now here me out as I outline the sequel "Top Dog: Dog Town" The first part of the movie takes place during the events of "Top Dog." We see some scenes of Captain Callahan at home eating dinner with his family. His son Harry, is failing math and this does not look good for his mayoral campaign. Then his daughter started dating this weirdo at her college that nobody likes. Again he laments how this is does look good for his mayoral campaign. Then we cut to a scene with him and his wife, as he confides in her about the white supremest plot going on in the city and how it's not going to be good for his campaign. Then he questions whether or not teaming up Wilder with Reno was the best idea, because this could be really be bad for his campaign. Then we show the climax of "Top Dog" and how under Captain Callahan's guidance this act of terror was stopped. This of course is great for his campaign! He wins the election and becomes mayor on his platform of law and order. Next we jump four years in time, to San Diego under mayor Callahan. Since the act of terror, hate crime has gone down in his city but now drugs are flooding the streets. Guess what? He's also up for re-election and seeing as he was running on a platform of law and order all these drugs on the street means one thing. That's right, this is not looking good for his re-election campaign. Then he gets a great idea. He once worked with the greatest drug dog who somehow worked with a homicide detective ever, Reno! Reno is now retired and lives with Matt Swanson and the two of them make 'hero dog' calendars in which Reno wears a different hat every month. Mayor Callahan begs with Reno to come out of retirement once more. Reno agrees but only under one condition, every cop gets partnered with a dog! This would be a great idea but drug dealers keep shooting and throwing the dogs off boats! To make matters worse Reno gets kidnapped by the drug kingpin. A hero dog being kidnapped? Mayor Callahan knows that this can not be good for his campaign. The only way to get Reno back and end the drug war is to get Wilder on the case. But what dog will work with Wilder? That's right, Reno's puppy son Nevada. The third act of the film is the mayor a la Hagar in Final Fight taking to the streets with Wilder and Nevada to get Reno back and end the drug war. Eventually together they manage to beat up the drug kingpin, who turns out to be the daughter's college boyfriend, for like ten minutes for no reason before Callahan begs Reno and Wilder to spare his life. Thus all drug use in San Diego ends, and this looks really good for Mayor Callahan's re-election campaign. Credits!

We gotta start a kickstarter for this! I'll kick in 10,000 yen at least.

I'm willing to bet that his dad's name is Lou and his brother's name is Matt too.

There is so much to be said about this movie but the one thing I want to mention before I forget is about the cat and mouse game between the one head white supremacist and the lady cop in the bell tower at the climax of the movie. We see a few times the character go out on these tiny balconies in the tower that are no bigger than a bathtub. There is not extra room to the sides of them and they only come out like a meter. When she gets to the top floor she clears the one balcony and as she walks out on to the second balcony the white supremacist leaps out at her catching her by surprise. Where was he hiding? There is literally no extra space or room to hide. We are shown how big it is immediately after when they are tussling on it not to mention in all the previous establishing shots. Are we to assume that he was dangling over the edge and leaped up and over and at her? It makes no sense!

The entire time watching this movie and seeing this a few times it didn't occur to me just now but do police dogs even wear badges?