Sharky's Machine (1981)

Review by All Movie Guide
Made during a period when Burt Reynolds was so hot that he could have gotten a deal to direct the Sears catalog, this police thriller has something that might almost be described as a sensibility. A film that openly invokes the classic Laura (1944), this tale of a quirky undercover cop (Reynolds) who becomes obsessed with a high-class hooker (Rachel Ward) under 24-hour surveillance swings wildly between extremes of romanticism and violence, its protagonist both tougher than Dirty Harry and more vulnerable than Bambi. The star peoples his surveillance unit with a host of talented character actors including Charles Durning and comic stud Richard Libertini, and the throwaway humor and warmth of their exchanges has an improvised feel that seems to reflect the fabled looseness of Reynolds' sets. The unpersuasive plot concerning Vittorio Gassman's ridiculously overblown gangster's involvement with corruption in high places is clearly intended only as a framework for the star to stretch out. If Reynolds' direction is primitive and the film often looks as though it was edited with a meat cleaver, to hear the isolated star warbling a duet of "My Funny Valentine" with a distant and unwitting Ward is worth the price of admission. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide