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Sudden Impact is a Dirty Harry movie with only the good parts left in. All the slow stuff, such as character, motivation, atmosphere and plot, has been pared to exactly the minimum necessary to hold together the violence.

A viscerally effective, fast paced thriller.

A brutally hard-hitting policier which casts Clint Eastwood as audiences like to see him, as the toughest guy in town.

The film is split down the middle, with many elegant symmetries and curling plotlines bridging the two halves: one part is a bracing, funny, almost Keaton-esque comedy starring Harry as a deadpan center of disaster; the other is a brooding, brutal film noir, starring Sondra Locke as a vengeful femme fatale.

Harry is more fun, and he is less the fascist. Considering the genre -- bloody crimebusting and to-hell-with-your-rights- pal -- these are no small blessings. [12 Dec 1983, p.C6]

Eastwood keeps things moving at a furious pace and the series' formula of having a steely-eyed "dinosaur" like Harry cutting through the red tape and vanquishing the scum of the earth remains irresistible.

The trouble with Sudden Impact is that it has the makings of a fascinating, multileveled melodrama, but settles for crude, comic-book detail. Eastwood doesn't want to let down his Dirty Harry fans, but at the same time he wants to take this character into deeper and murkier waters. The result is curious, a disquisition on the justice of revenge written with a spray can. [12 Dec 1983, p.109]

The real problem here is technical; Eastwood the director is far less sure-footed than he was with the likes of Play Misty for Me or The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Unfortunately, it fizzles after a fast-paced, action-packed, full-of-business-and-bullets beginning...It's not the fault of Eastwood the actor, who's still every bit the spaghetti samurai. It's Eastwood the director, with his flashbacks and symbolism, who misjudges the pace."Sudden Impact probably isn't worth a few dollars more.

The screenplay is ridiculous, and Mr. Eastwood's direction of it primitive, which is surprising because he has shown himself capable in such films as ''The Outlaw Josey Wales'' and ''The Gauntlet.''