Too many fans seem to be blown away

Boring

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

The Dirty Harry series will always have a special place in my heart – just because it's so darned cool. Clint Eastwood lives and breathes the role of the unorthodox cop, and by the time of this third sequel – the fourth and penultimate movie in the long-running franchise – he shows no signs of flagging or losing enthusiasm for his subject matter, directing as well as starring as the tough cop.This has got to be the most entertaining Dirty Harry since the first movie. The series makes a fine segue from late '70s grittiness to early '80s flashiness, retaining the same hard edge that made the early films so successful. Here, Harry is once again arguing with his superiors, who this time send him on an enforced holiday to a little town where he begins to track down a serial killer. Along with that, the usual hoodlums and gangsters are gunning for our hero, leading to a literally action-packed movie in which we watch Harry chase a thug through the streets in an old people's bus (a highlight), have shoot-outs with his trusty sidepiece, and even deliver another famous line – this time, it's the "make my day" one.The main thrust of the story is about Eastwood's one time partner, Sondra Locke, as we follow her delivering her own brand of justice against a gang of men who once gang-raped her and her sister. It's a violent chronicle, exposing the psychology of such a crime, and it works, providing a fitting parallel to Harry's own character. The cast are at the top of their game here, with nobody putting a foot wrong, from the icy, slightly alien Locke, to Paul Drake as a truly loathsome baddie. There are also a ton of great character actors filling out supporting roles, like Bradford Dillman, Pat Hingle, and in particular Albert Popwell, who is fine as Harry's partner. Add in some great laughs in the form of a bad-mannered dog and you have a great film that just gets better as time goes by.

This movie is about a woman named Jennifer Spencer who was raped along with her sister. Her sister now suffers brain damage, and now Jennifer exacts revenge on the abusers. With the movie constantly going back and forth from flashbacks, to Jennifer and to Dirty Harry, it takes you out of what is currently happening and this cycle continues for the entire movie, with mostly flashbacks as the movie treats the viewers as if they can't remember things from a few minutes in the past. This story that could have ended in less than two hours is dragged on for nearly an hour and fifty-three minutes, with a mediocre corrupted cop ending. This ending completely underminds recent Dirty Harry ideologies and movies, he doesn't like the system, but he vaguely follows it.

"Go ahead - make my day" "Remember that "cock-shot stiff" out by the cliffhouse" "How the hell was I supposed to know he was going to vapor-lock" "Yeah, you're a legend in your own mind / Goddamn you Callahan!""Listen Punk! To me you're nothing but dog sh*t, yah understand and a lot of things can happen to dog sh*t, it it can be scraped up with a shovel off the ground, it can dry up and blow away in the wind or it can be stepped on and squashed - so take my advice be careful where the dog sh*t's you!"Sudden Impact, the 3rd (and best) sequel of the Dirty Harry franchise was released in December of 1983, which was sort of a down period for good old Clint, as several of his films of that era are not that good, some throw-away's even; but Sudden Impact is a great one and surely is the best of Eastwood's early-80's out-put.Directed by the man himself, Sudden Impact comes brimming with action and humor and has, on a intermittent basis, some of the best dialog in the series. The movie is studded with several sequences where Harry just happens to be at the right place at the right time to take out the trash, but more often than not he's targeted by an ongoing assortment of street punks, mobsters, psychopaths, rapists and even a couple of smarmy rogue-fisherman - you'll find it's palate of foe's is more widely varied than any other Dirty Harry film. The first half-hour is largely Harry just taking out the trash, which is great and always a blast to watch, but after that the movies plot starts to solidify.Sudden Impact is a tale of revenge, sweet revenge and is one of only a handful of films out there that features a female serial-killer; played by Sandra Locke (Clint's fling at the time). Locke's pale skin and dark eyes gave her the right look for the role, she's especially effective when staring down her victims. A dark and violent film and the most violent of all the Dirty Harry films and yet oddly Sudden Impact doesn't pack the highest kill-count of the series, that distinction goes to Magnum Force. Like others have mentioned, the film absolutely revels in a dark and murky morass that's overflowing with deliciously evil characterizations and over-the-top portrayals by a few highly odious, low-life, criminal scoundrels who form a loose-knit gang in the coastal region of San Paulo, California; I believe that's south of San Fran - the home of Harry. You see in this movie, Harry's being targeted by so many people, that his bosses get fed up with all the noise that invariably follows Inspector Callahan, so they assign him to a case outside of San Fransicsco - in San Paulo. On the matter of his bosses, Sudden Impact probably has the best of those familiar scenes, where Harry quarrels with his so-called superiors back at the station. In other words those testy, tersely-worded, clamoring for leverage harangue's, that ALWAYS revolve around Harry's unique (and often blunt and to the point) policing methods.The pace of the film is efficient, but not necessarily fast and everything seems to fit together well, meaning no scene is wasted or unnecessary. As I mentioned before Sudden Impact is notably potent in conveying/depicting a certain over-riding and distinctively odious criminal element, that REALLY permeates the movie - especially in the second half. It's as if you're utterly basking in it's sleaze - it's that thick. There are several key aspects that color this film a dark shade, such as: It takes place primarily at night (particurlarly in the latter half) which literally adds to the pervasive darkness that this film so potently emotes, there's the sick and oily presence of Ray Parkins - the evil, ugly, red-headed, lesbian, witch (I LOVE her crooked witchey smile!) and her cast of evil henchmen to revel in and on the audible side of the spectrum you have Lalo Schifrin's tersely phrased strings, their musical needlings effectively coat everything in a prickly, icy layer of suspense; when combined these elements effectively increase the films overall dark and menacing quality. Basically, when the sun set's Clint Eastwood did a great job in portraying San Paulo as: A Nighted Hellrealm of Scum and Villainy...... that also includes a merry-go-round.I can't stress enough just how many fun sequences this movie packs, some of these highly colorful encounters qualify as "mini-epic's" in and of themselves and show-off Harry being Harry to great effect. My intuition tells me that Clint had a really fun time making this movie and at that time the world was way over-due for some more Dirty Harry. It's a crying shame he took till 1983 to do so - that's a good 7 to 7 and half years after the previous Dirty movie, 1976's "The Enforcer". He should have made more. ***After reading some of the other reviews, it's funny how many English panty-waist's were offended by this movie - I counted several of them. LOL!***Miscellaneous Observation's: Eastwood's old chum Albert Popwell makes yet another appearance, this time as a good guy.Harry gets a new 44 Magnum, an upgrade of a sort. (I'll always see the 44 -revolver- as THE Dirty Harry gun) In the movies opening minutes, no scene in all of cinema uses the word "punk!" more effectively, then what Harry does during the "elevator scene".Harry's so potent this time around, that he dispatches an enemy using -only- some well chosen words and an envelope full of blank paper; apparently he's now as enwisened as he is dirty.

Sudden Impact (1983)*** (out of 4) Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) not only upsets his bosses with his ways of handling thing but he also upsets a Mafia family who puts a hit out on him. When things become too crazy in San Franscisco he's sent up north to do some investigating on a murder and soon more bodies begin to pile up. It turns out that a woman (Sondra Locke) is seeking vengeance for the rape against her and her sister by tracking down those responsible.SUDDEN IMPACT is a good film, to a point, but there's no question that it was the weakest in the series up to date. It's rather strange because you could argue that on a technical level this here is the best one since the first film and a lot of the credit has to go to Eastwood who not only stars in the film but also produced and directed it. This fourth film certainly has a lot more polish on it as there's much more style and it's clear that Eastwood's directing skills are as sharp as always.The biggest problem with this movie is its screenplay, which was credited to two different writers and the story itself was also credited to two people includes Charles B. Pierce, the man behind films like THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK and THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN. I'm not sure what went wrong or what the original story idea was but what remains is a real mess. I say this because it really does seem as they were making stuff up as they went along because there's simply way too much stuff here and there's no doubt that some editing would have really helped. We get a ton of "story" at the start of the film and while the stuff with the Mafia makes for some great action scenes, in reality its story is bad. The stuff dealing with the rape/revenge is pretty straight-forward but then there's cover-ups and other things thrown in and by the time the ending comes it's just a big mess.With that said, the reason Dirty Harry is a classic is easily seen even in the weakest of the series. For starters, we've got Eastwood back, kicking butt and adding more bullets to countless scumbags. Seeing the actor with his laid back approach and sly humor works once again and there's no doubt that the actor can put a smile on your face with his one-liners. The quote "Go ahead, make my day" comes from this film and deserves its classic status. The action scenes are also quite brutal and it's always amazed me that the MPAA was so harsh against slasher films from this era but some of the gunshot wounds here are very violent in their own way but I'm certainly not going to complain.Locke is good in her supporting role as the rape victim and Pat Hingle is also very good in his role. Albert Popwell is fun in his supporting role and fans of PORKY'S will also be happy to see Nancy Parsons. SUDDEN IMPACT is certainly a product of its era but that's really not a bad thing. While the film is certainly watchable you can't help but notice its flaws and a little editing and a better story would have made for something more memorable.