Review of The Enforcer (1976) by Russell G — 31 Jul 2008

Any movie that has the line "You can't hump a limp dummy, that's what I always say," can't be all bad, but it comes close.

It makes you realize how important Lalo Schiffrin is to the Dirty Harry equation. Instead of his themes, which somehow injected even more "cool" into every scene of the previous two, we instead get Jerry Fielding's histrionics. His score proves annoying, cloying, dated, and distracting, undermining the potential intensity of many of the action scenes. If not for this, the film probably could have survived the campy and underdeveloped villains--who are more annoying than intimidating.

In spite of the problems, still great to see vintage Eastwood kicking peoples' asses, even if it undermines the greatness of the first one, and there's several well executed scenes. There's also a dated but fun bit of gender politics, and Tyne shares an engaging report with Clint.