Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

trashgang This is not your typical action flick from the eighties. I came across this one due a friend remembering this one and knowing i like Burt Reynolds. This is made after Deliverance (1972) and even his funny part in Smokey and The Bandit (1977). For many this is the best flick with Burt and it was even directed by him. It's a more psychological flick then action because there's a lot going on in the mind of Sharky (Burt Reynolds). It's a slow moving flick but even clocking in just over 2 hours it never bored me. It's only in the beginning you will see some action and towards the last part. But it's so typical end seventies, early eighties. The sound, the score, the way of using the camera. Burt isn't the macho here as we used to see him, for some this will be outdated but it's still worth picking up just to see all those thespians from those day.Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5

Wuchak Released in 1981, "Sharky's Machine" stars Burt Reynolds as Sgt. Tom Sharky, an Atlanta cop who's demoted to the lowly vice division. Assigned to check out a high society prostitution ring, Sharky stumbles across a mob murder with governmental ties. He corrals his underdog vice team – the so-called Sharky's machine – to investigate and take down the guilty, whether mobsters or politicians. Rachel Ward plays the high-priced prostitute who fascinates Sharky, while Brian Keith and Bernie Casey play Sharky's partners, amongst others. Vittorio Gassman is on hand as the 'Godfather'-type heavy. The story, as reported, is that Burt Reynolds was friends with Clint Eastwood in the late 70s and Burt suggested that he would do a Dirty Harry-type movie if Clint did a comedy, like Burt's numerous good ol' boy flicks. So Clint did the two "Every/Any Which Way" movies (1978 and 1980) and Burt eventually did "Sharky's Machine," which he described as "Dirty Harry in Atlanta." While Burt certainly rivaled Clint as the best masculine actor of the mid-60s through the 80s (although I give Clint the edge), all five of the Dirty Harry pictures are better than "Sharky's Machine," even the heavily maligned "The Dead Pool" (1988), not to mention other Eastwood cop thrillers, like the excellent "The Gauntlet" (1977) and arguably "Tightrope" (1984). So what's wrong with "Sharky's Machine" (SM)? The first two times I tried to view it years ago I couldn't get past the 50-minute mark. How come? While SM has a decent action-filled start it doesn't outdo the beginnings of all or most of the Dirty Harry flicks (DH). Worse, soon after the first act, SM bogs down in a seemingly never-ending stakeout, which is mostly dull, although there are a couple of good dialogue sequences, like the old guy (Charles Durning) recounting killing a teen German during WWII. While SM gets better it never fully recovers from this long drag. All the DH films by comparison are entertaining from beginning to end, even their 'downtime' sequences. Furthermore, the way one of the two SM villains (Henry Silva) is scripted is sometimes eye-rolling, like the way he's always skulking nearby (e.g. the run-over-the-cop scene and the black criminal episode). If he's as addicted to drugs as the story suggests, how's he always at the proverbial right place at the right time? Then there are the cartoonish Asian martial artists that seem to come from an entirely different set. I'm not saying the DH flicks or "Gauntlet" didn't have cartoony elements, but they always pulled 'em off in an entertaining way. In SM they're just dumb. Still, the cast of SM is great, particularly Sharky's has-been partners, and it's great seeing Burt in a serious flick. He's always entertaining. I would've liked to have seen a SM series (like DH) because I think the sequels would've improved upon the solid foundation with a better story. The film runs 122 minutes and was shot entirely in Atlanta. GRADE: C+

buddybickford I have always been a huge Burt Reynolds fan, I've always admired his humility and his way of engaging with the audience be it as actor or Director.The film opens to the enchanting tones of Randy Crawford signing Street life, incidentally the film ends on a duet to what closely must resemble the sound of the emasculation of two cats with a blunt knife.Anyway Sharky is demoted to Vice when 'he' messed up a drug bust. Down in Vice is where we meet the gang who all add wonderful dimensions to this film and each shines in his role, Charles Durning is hilarious he screams with such intensity you really become concerned for his blood pressure.Just when it looks like Vice might be boring a whole can of worms opens up when they begin to stake out some 'High class' call girls (the stake out is a little long almost in real time), the plot involves a puppet politician and the puppet master played amazingly by the one and only Vittorio Gassman.Sharky starts to fall for 'Dominoe' (gorgeous but she's gotta give up the cigarettes she sounds like the Bouvier sisters from the Simpsons) one of the 'High Class' call girls, incidentally Burt Fell for another 'High Class' call girl in 'Hustle'.Burt was very generous with the script he gave some of the best stuff to the supporting cast, in actual fact sometimes through the movie in his quest to build Sharky as the strong silent type the lack of script for himself turned Sharky into the strong boring type. This was very apparent when he was finally with Dominoe at his pad, he was pining around like a 13 year old. He couldn't string two words together he just looked bashful so bashful he almost looked mentally challenged, he did everything bar kicking his heels looking at the floor and saying "Gee golly I ain't never done kissed no girl be fower hu hulk".In all it's a very entertaining film, it drags a bit here and there, but it always comes back to life and the last 30 minutes are a roller-coaster, watch out for Henry Silva who plays a whacked out hit man, my favorite scene is when he points his gun at Arch and…..

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.