Sudden Impact (1983)

Undescribable Perfection

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

For a while, "Sudden Impact" plays like a a highlight reel of Dirty Harry's signature moves. The altercations occur one after another, his superiors are pretty much meaningless, and Eastwood scowls all throughout. Forget rationalizing his actions; it's just entertaining. Up until that second half at least, which is when things turn towards dramatic as a serial killer/revenge flick. There's still the body count, but it's not as fun as seeing Eastwood laying down larger-than-life street justice. Take that early coffee shop robbery for example; a well-staged shootout that almost brings The Man With No Name to mind. It's terrific. 6/10

Dirty Harry movies have never been what anyone would term 'family friendly'. There's nudity, some crude language and lots of violence. However, "Sudden Impact" notches it all up several notches and at times it all just seemed gratuitous and unnecessary...especially with scenes of the dog, Meathead, peeing and farting all the time as well as everything about the red-headed 'lady'--her character was just gross and over the top.Not surprisingly, this film begins with a lot of folks being snuffed by Harry. However, when he did this in previous films, he was acting as a cop...doing his job. Here, however, Callahan seems to think that civil rights simply don't apply to scum-bags--such as the guy who's induced to have a fatal heart attack by Harry's tactics. Clearly, this is a morals-impaired incarnation of Callahan. However, because of these tactics, Harry is wanted by various hit men and his bosses (again) are tired of all the violence and negative publicity. So, they send him to dig up information about a murder that points back to the fictional city of San Paulo. There he meets an odd lady (Sondra Locke), an incredibly uncooperative and grouchy police chief (Pat Hingle) and a farting/peeing dog. And, at the same time, several murders with the exact same m.o. begin taking place in San Paulo.So is all this any good? Well, I loved the vigilante story line quite a bit. It's just that all the rest of the film is just oppressively sleazy and gross...to the point where I think the series took a definite step backwards with this one. Interestingly, however, financially this was the big winner in the Dirty Harry series-- raking in tons 'o bucks.

Apparently the fourth outing in the ''Harry Callahan'' franchise, this movie is like a pleasant old acquaintance when it turns up on satellite pay-TV every six months or so in Australia.Forget about 'probable cause' or 'Miranda rights' or the inherent decency of San Francisco's finest, this film's message is: If you're not the world's greatest actress, you can still get a starring role if you're shagging Clint Eastwood.''San Francisco''?? Isn't that where the city fathers won't enforce the Federal Laws on illegal immigration? God help you if an illegal alien unlawfully re-enters the USA after being deported. He won't be locked up in San Francisco. He is free to murder your daughter. Thanks for that, Obama.How about a 'Dirty Harry' movie on a ''Kate's Law'' theme ? With the 2016 Presidential Election in full swing, it might change the voting preferences of the great uneducated majority. Or is that too much to hope for??

Sudden Impact is on par with the first two Dirty Harry flicks and is well worth watching. The fact this movie only has a 6.6 is crazy. This movie has loads of violence a fun story to follow and another amazing performance by Clint (no one would care about any of these movies if it were not for Eastwood he always steals the show in these movies). My only complaint is that allot of the start of the movie is unnecessary and they could have made the movie a bit shorter though everything still flows greatly. Also the villains death is over the top 80's action goodness! What people must realize before they watch this movie is that this is an 80's action movie not a 70's action movie. If you liked the previous movies make sure you give this one a watch it wont disappoint!