Review of Sharky's Machine (1981) by Ted W — 07 Mar 2015

This was Bert Reynolds attempt to make a serious movie. He directs it himself. It's a good cop story. It's got some intense parts. They setting is in Atlanta Georgia but the only character to speak with a Georgia accent was a little girl playing the daughter of cop who plants electronic bugs and taps telephone lines.

A lot of the electronic eaves dropping depicted in the movie would be illegal today. It may have been illegal when the movie was made too. There is no real nudity in the movie but there is enough crude language that the movie is rated R.

The Sharky character is transferred to the vice squad after a drug buy goes bad and a civilian and the drug dealer are shot. They depict the vice squad as working out of the basement and manned by cops on the verge of retirement or were being punished.

In the old days corrupt cops wanted to work the vice squads because it was relatively safe and there were lots of bribes floating around. The last part of the movie was a long setup for the final stunt of the movie.

It was a fall from a high rise building that is still the record for a stunt fall. The DVD for this movie is in Standard TV format.