jamie T

Dirty Harry is back, five years on from 'Sudden Impact' looking more craggy and tired then ever before.

'The dead pool' may be an interesting premise for a murder plot, but having Liam Neesons very hammy horror director as a major character indicates how ropey this film really is. OK, we do get some typical set pieces, and the car chase seen is pretty good. But the attack on Callahan in his car is a virtual re-write of the one in 'Sudden Impact' as is the suicide man, who wants to get on TV (echoing the roofjumper from 'Dirty Harry').

Harry signs off with (by this point, outdated- Roger Moore like corny line 'he's hanging out back there) his largest gun to date, and I'm not sure if its supposed to be a joke or not... but this film follows on from 'The Enforcer' with the rule that 'as the guns get bigger the films get lamer'.

This film isn't really worth any notable attention, unless you like to see Jim Carey slumming it early in his career (some would say his best role!). For the first time we don't get a screen appearence from Albert Popwell, which is a shame, but perhaps he knew something that Clint didn't about this poor entry into the Dirty Harry series. I'm still debating whether its worse than 'The Enforcer'. Harry shouldn't have returned for a fifth outing, and lets hope that even with this poor showing the series isn't resurrected with another actor playing Harry, as this is one role that Clint made his own.

5/10 2/5

The initial prospect of seeing 'Dirty Harry' part four was not an appetising one following the lacklustre 'The Enforcer'. I was plesently surprised that the film improved significantly on its predecessor, whilst adding something new to the franchise.

Firstly Harry spends the majority of the film in some quiet coastal town investigating a series of revenge murders. I was also surprised when Clint's famous 'make me day' line cropped up in this film, I was sure it was from something more famous.

Sudden Impact to me is certainly the third best Dirty Harry flick. The plot is an interesting twist for Harry to negotiate, and the 'real' bad guys are seen as three dimentional characters. The film does contain the staple set pieces seen in all the Dirty Harry films, and they don't disappoint. The scene with the mafia boss is Harry at his best/ worse depending on your politics. Harry still clashes with his superiors who refer to him as a 'dinosaur' but in this one Harry is more like a private detective and the cops don't show up at the last minute as per usual.

'Sudden Impact' is a worthy addition to the Dirty Harry cannon, and Roger Moore era Bond gags aside (The comedy dog, particularly), this film spiced up Harry when I questioned the future of the franchise at the end of part three. This is not to say that they should have gone on to part five- they shouldn't have. Ideally this would have been released in the seventies, with say Cybil Shepherd or Ellyn Burnstein in the main female role, as for me Sondra Lock doesn't quite cut it. It's nice to see Albert Popwell again too, see it, just don't go any further than this 1983 Harry adventure.

6/10 3/5

Dirty Harry part 3 sees Harry teemed up with one of his expected nightmares for a partner- a women. And who can blame him given Tyne Daley's character, Inspector Moore, despite attempting to go out on her own, basically follows Harry in every scene, particularly in what seems a 50 mile hike across San Fransisco. This culminates with a comedy crash through a sky light into a porno movie shoot, a scene that echoes Roger Moore's 007 antics of the time. She does however save Harry's life with her first 'kill' when he is ruffing up a pinky- liberal priest- who we never fid out why he's siding with the militant loons that will go on to kidnap the mayor.

Arguably the Mayor gives us the best scenes in the film, firstly his shockingly bad hair and the scene where he stands by while Harry tells his superiors to take his star as a five point supposatory. He subsequently goes and takes Harry's advise to 'jack-off' the press with a cover a story as to why Callahan isn't receiving his commondation. Ultimately though the Mayor is a stereotyped lying, self- obsessed politician, as is the man Ayrian bad guy with the 'wild' stare.

The revolutionaries in this film are particularly poor, and highlight the lack of direction in the story. Again we never really find out their reasons for kidnapping the mayor, albeit for the ransom, that they were like in 'Dirty Harry', ready to pay. These guys are way over the top and the leader is particularly bad.

Overall the series begins to lose direction with this film, arguably they should have stopped here. The character outline of Harry Callahan made in 'Magnum Force' disapeers and the filmmakers commit the ultimate sin of the Dirty Harry series- failing to make the set pieces interesting. The finale is interesting in that Clint would return a couple of years later for 'Escape from Alcatraz' but overall perhaps it would have been better to leave Harry at this point while Clint was still relatively young.

5/10. Worth seeing if you liked the other two, but don't expect too much. It is again nice to hear reference to Harry's last partner by name and not just a faceless 'dead partner' as is often linked with Dirty Harry's image.