Sharky's Machine

Lightweight and arty in equal measures and with a few plot elements borrowed from Laura, it's hard to tell just what the hell the Mustache was going for with this one. It's overlong and has ocassional flashes of quite decent acting (never at the key moments though), it's all in all a mystefying little piece of cinema, that isn't worth the headscratching.

Viewed May 12, 2020.

Reynolds has a devilish charm that's hard to deny, but the films he directed didn't quite work, despite his clear attempts to break somewhat with stylistic convention. In S.M he throws a few curveballs into the rather routine script about a demoted detective whose investigations become increasingly knotty, such as an eccentric killer who shouts before dispatching his victims (Silva) and his slightly skewed staging of action, but the plot isn't interesting and it's too long.

Artsy and trashy; an authentic American giallo.

Not bad.

Reynolds clearly cares a lot about this film and turns in his best performance out of the several crime films he made in the 80's. Reynolds has really solid supports from the guys playing his "machine" ... Brian Keith, Bernie Casey and Richard Libertini. Rachel Ward is really good playing a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold who is fairly multi-dimensional. Silva pulls out every stop and eats all the scenery in sight as the crazed, shouty bad guy.

Not bad,but I read the book just beforehand and it cuts out some interesting developments from the book while not really adding a whole lot to it