K9: P.I. is the third instalment in the ongoing saga of police dog Jerry-Lee and his owner/colleague Thomas Dooley. This time around, Thomas and the mutt are retiring, but a mixup while stopping a robbery sees his pension cheque stopped by the FBI while he’s investigated. In desperate need of dosh, he goes back into the P.I. biz, to investigate his own case. What he uncovers is a theft of high-tech microchips, one of which Jerry-Lee has swallowed.

This is a film about a cop and his dog. What’s there to say? It rocked my world? It suffers from directorial excesses which place police work in an unflattering light? It exposes the seedy underworld of dog prostitution?

Actually, it does expose the seedy underworld of dog prostitution. Who’d-a-thunk it? And depending on how you look at it, I think there’s this underlying theme of homodoguality. Or is that dogosexuality? Either way, it’s a bit disconcerting once you latch onto it.

It also exposes the stinky world of dog constipation. A good portion of the film deals with Jerry-Lee’s constipation caused by the microchip he swallowed. The dog farts and eventual noisy clearing of his intestinal blockage are the highlight of the film and the funniest moments by far, saving this from being just another cop-dog-criminals-microchip-pension-farting film.

So, by no means the filmic equivalent of brain surgery, yet not quite as bad as watching a brain-rotting Barney DVD, K9: P.I. will probably entertain some kids and adults with the assorted doggy-fart antics, while also containing just enough chemistry between Belushi and the dog to keep them distracted from reality for 91 minutes.

If the kids are a bit picky with the video transfers because they’ve been reading too many DVD review sites, then you’ll have nothing to fear here. For what has to have been a straight to video/DVD release, the anamorphic 1.85:1 picture is as good as you could possibly ask for. Colours are nice, skin tones look natural and the dog looks dog coloured. Although the settings are almost constantly placed in darkness, the detail levels throughout are fine. For a small film that not a lot of people will know of (other than K9 and fart-dog film fanatics, that is), I was plenty pleased with the picture.

This DVD comes with 5.1 audio. This film was really made with a 5.1 mix? Amazing. In the States there’s apparently even a DTS mix as well. Not here though, we get just the DD5.1, but I’m not complaining, because it’s perfectly fine. It’s not a showcase type, but it doesn’t need to be. There are a few opportunities for it to utilise all channels to slight but good effect, some good placement of Jerry’s farts to the right stereo channel that was appreciated and the dialogue is spot on all the time. Good stuff!

Just two bonus features are included, a featurette called Sniffin’ Out the Real Story, running 10:23, and a trailer. The featurette isn't too bad for what it is, probably better than most. A few interesting facts to learn: each movie had a different dog, Belushi didn’t want to make the first film and his agent begged him and King (who plays Jerry Lee) also played understudy to Mack in the second film. There you go, impress your friends with those useless facts.