I’ve never seen the original television series “Dragnet” and I don’t know if this does it justice but this film version is both an effectuate spoof and homage to police programmes of the past that can also work on the same level as a lot of buddy cop movies of the 1980s such as “Beverly Hills Cop”.

In “Dragnet”, Sergeant Joe Friday (Dan Aykroyd “Ghostbusters”, “The Great Outdoors”) is a L.A. police officer who does everything by the book. Friday gets a new partner in the form of Detective Pep Streebek (Tom Hanks “Toy Story”, “Big”) who is reckless but gets the job done. The two must try to stop a group of criminals.

Dan Aykroyd is fantastic as Sergeant Friday; he really captures the essence of old police show policemen. Tom Hanks is equally great as Detective Streebek. The two in the movie are really great as Friday acts like he’s from the 50s and 60s while Streebek seems to be in the 80s along with everyone else, this is great idea for a movie like this and it makes it highly enjoyable to watch. The other characters aren’t too compelling to watch but you’ve got enough with the two leads.

“Dragnet” is a movie that is very similar to “Beverly Hills Cop” as both are comedies of the police/buddy cop genre but both also work as legitimate police/buddy cop films unlike films such as “National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1”. Some scenes in “Dragnet” are very enjoyable and very amusing but there a few moments that don’t work such as the scene where Hanks’ character makes a bad guy talk in the interrogation room by repeatedly slamming a draw into his private area. Aside from a few mishaps this is a fun picture that I recommend because it is so effectuate and I feel it is as good as “The Naked Gun”.