Dirty Harry (1971)

Before Clint Eastwood evolved into the brilliant director he has become today he made his name playing tough as nails characters like the infamous Harry Callahan. I've been meaning to watch some old school Eastwood movies for a while now and since A Fist Full of Dollars wasn't streaming I thought Dirty Harry would be a good place to start.

My expectations were pretty high for this movie. Aside from the legendary "well, do ya, punk?" speech I was expecting non-stop Eastwood kick-assery. Unfortunately, it didn't quite satisfy me. It's not that Eastwood wasn't awesome and didn't kick any ass it's just that the "plays by his own rules" cop movie has been done so many times since this movie came out that the plot just feels way too familiar. That's not a knock on the movie. At the time it was probably original and ground-breaking but it just doesn't blow me away like it would have if I had never seen all of the rip-offs of this movies in the 40 years since. Still, it's a good flick and significant to the action genre, it just doesn't hold up as well as hoped.

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This movie will stop streaming on 1/1/2011.

The Standard 5:

Why is it in your queue? Wanted to watch some old school Eastwood.

Is it artsy? No.

Best thing about the movie? Eastwood's scowl.

What mood should I be in to watch this movie? In the mood to watch a cop action movie.

What rating did you give it on Netflix? 3 Stars. 

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