Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Lee Eisenberg Burt Reynolds directs himself as an Atlanta cop investigating prostitution ring tied to a political candidate. My favorite scene in "Sharky's Machine" came early on, when Reynolds's character gets demoted to the vice squad and walks down to the bottom floor, finding what the vice squad looks like (and showing how it reflects all the sleazy stuff that they have to investigate). That scene is merely an introduction to the slimy things that Sharky and his colleagues will come across over the course of the movie.I suspect that a lot of the scenes of Rachel Ward half-dressed will interest people, but those are more peripheral to the movie's action. The environs of Atlanta set the stage for all manner of lowlife activity. And when I say lowlife, I mean that there are some INTENSE scenes. It's not any kind of great movie but I enjoyed it.The rest of the cast includes Vittorio Gassman, Charles Durning, Bernie Casey and Brian Keith.

FlashCallahan Tom Sharky is a narcotics cop in Atlanta who's demoted to vice after bust went wrong, and a member of the public was killed in the process. In the depths of this division, while investigating a high-dollar prostitution ring, Sharky stumbles across a mob murder with government ties, and responds by assembling his downtrodden fellow investigators.This forms Sharky's titular machine and they strive to find the leaders and bring them to justice before they kill off all his partners and witnesses.Including Sharky himself........From the upstart of the movie, its a totally different move for Reynolds. Deliverance aside, he was best known for making comedies, so once Eastwood went into his territory with Bronco Billy, he decided to reverse his roles.And it's a pretty brutal affair. The opening set piece sets the tone for the mood of the whole film, and it's directed solidly by the actor, who makes the mood sometimes almost unbearable.The mid section is a little stodgy unfortunately though, with the 'machine' looking for extra exposition, and Sharky spending a little too much time staring at Rachel Ward through a lens.But it's Silva who steals the thunder from everyone. He is truly psychotic as the PCP riddled killer, and the final set piece is genuinely gripping right until the spectacular, record breaking fall.And it skips to Reynolds and Ward playing with a tyre swing, and then it just finishes, which really feels out of place, especially as the mood swings so rapidly.So its a totally watchable thriller, but it's nothing out of the ordinary, and despite surprising brutal side to the narrative, these thrillers were ten a penny in the eighties.Which isn't a bad thing.

Theo Robertson On the surface SHARKY'S MACHINE is just another crime thriller come star vehicle with the slight gimmick that its star also directs the film . Truth be told Burt Reynolds isn't the greatest actor of his generation but he does have a certain manliness that served him well throughout his career . Likewise as a director there's nothing outstanding here but by the same token it's certainly more than competent . The film is certainly helped by its setting and 1970s cinema is a highpoint of American film making and everything about the film screams 1970s , an era of great cynicism but one that Reynolds has successfully translated well to screen It wasn't well in to the running time that I realised I was watching a film set in Atlanta because I thought the story was taking place in New York . In those days New York had a terrible reputation as a sleazy place where crime and vice was running out of control . Regardless as to the truth of all this even if you'd never visited the city you'd have images of dirty streets falling in to a state of disrepair and police stations full of hard bitten sarcastic cops interrogating hookers all day every day , a reputation that was probably reinforced by American film makers . Truth to be told Reynolds certainly plays up to this reputation The film works best in the first third as Reynolds goes undercover to trap a drugs dealer only to see his hard and dangerous work ruined by a colleague and then finds himself being assigned to the vice squad where every enjoyable and amusing cliché is served up to the audience . Once the story starts where Reynolds cop investigates a beautiful call girl called Dominoe things start to fall apart slightly . As several people have mentioned already the film would have worked much better if several scenes had been trimmed or left out completely and the film would have been much better if it was a 90 minute film than a two hour one . As it stands it's an okay crime thriller but you'll probably enjoy it more if you can remember the 1970s

bkoganbing Sharky's Machine finds Burt Reynolds as a narcotics cop who after a failed buy and bust that wasn't his fault, but that got a few people killed in it, he finds himself demoted to the vice squad in Atlanta.The prestige is hardly as good as the narcotics beat, but it does have its fringe benefits. One night after a roundup of working girls where one of their books falls into their hands, the guys ask for surveillance on Rachel Ward's place. She's an expensive item, servicing both notorious mobster Vittorio Gassman and law and order gubernatorial candidate Earl Holliman.Their surveillance however records a murder and the rest of the film is Sharky and his new colleagues from vice trying to solve this prestige case.Though it's a Burt Reynolds film and those usually have some humor to them, the comedy is kept in check as the film turns as deadly serious as Dirty Harry. It was reported in fact that Clint Eastwood was offered this film.Look for some good performances by fellow vice cops Bernie Casey and Brian Keith and by Henry Silva the coked up brother of Gassman who does the dirty work of the organization and loves his job.It's not a bad film, a mixture of Dirty Harry and Laura. Why Laura? You'll have to see Sharky's Machine for that answer.