Review of Sharky's Machine (1981) by Stephen C — 15 Oct 2012

Its easy now to see Burt Reynolds as a faded Clint Eastwood wannabe who ended up starring in commercials for glasses.

But when he was at his peak during the 70s and early 80s amid all the good old boy comedies he made and sometimes directed some moderatley interesting films.

Sharkys Machine is a fine example of one of those movies and its up there with other gritty cop movies from that period such as 48 hours and of course Tightrope.

Reynolds plays Sharky a homicide cop transfered to vice after a botched drugs bust.

During a routine surrveillance of high class call girl Dominoe played by Rachel Ward ,Sharky and his misfit band of cops become involved in a political scandal which could see them all wind up dead.

Despite a little bit of sagging in the middle the film itself is pretty darn good with Brian Keith ,Charles Durning ,Bernie Casey and Richard Libertini all on good form as Sharkys fellow cops.

Also kudos to Reynolds for reigning in his schtick and even allowing himself to have some of his fingers cut off in a very painful scene.

Extra special mention for Henry Silva as an untterly demented and drug crazed hitman his performance is one of a kind.

I have to say I throughly enjoyed this film and it still baffles me as to why its never made it onto DVD in the UK as its one of Reynolds very best efforts.