Z-View: “Sharkey’s Machine”
The Movie: Sharkey’s Machine
The Pitch: “Dirty Harry goes to Atlanta.”
The Tagline: “Burt is Sharky. Nobody leans on Sharky’s Machine!”
The Story: Tom Sharky is a narcotics cop demoted to vice after a botched drug bust results in a citizen being shot. Sharkey discovers a plot involving murders and a high level politician being manipulated by a crime boss. Sharkey pulls together a team of quirky cops, but as the bodies pile up find they are in over their heads.
The Screenplay: Gerald DiPego from the novel by William Diehl
The Director: Burt Reynolds
The Cast: Burt Reynolds, Vittorio Gassman, Brian Keith, Charles Durning, Earl Holliman, Bernie Casey, Henry Silva, Richard Libertini, Rachael Ward,Suzee Pai, Dan Inosanto .
The Good: The cast. The action. The soundtrack is awesome. Rachael Ward in her breakout role. Reynolds has the right balance of action/violence/humor. The shootout at the start and end of the movie.
The Bad: Henry Silva is a coked-up psycho hitman and that’s good. What happens to Reynolds when he crosses some Yakuza.
The Ugly: The torture scene on the boat.
The Rating: B
