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
