Love the whole 80’s horror vibe in this 5th and final installment of the Dirty Harry series. The series goes a bit back to its roots with another mismatched partner for Harry and a much less bleak story. For 1988, the series is showing some pretty dated aspects but it updates enough to stay relevant.
This one’s got the comedy moments back which were sorely missed in Sudden Impact. I loved Evan Kim’s role as Harry’s new partner. He’s so likable here (as he is in most of his roles). Also was fun to see an impossibly young Liam Neeson playing a role that is well below his talents but a good glimpse at what was to come. Jim Carrey is ridiculous in his short role here, hamming it up, nothing like a rock star would be. You can already see his comedy chops coming through though.
Some reviewers said Harry’s love interest in this was all wrong for him but I actually thought the chemistry was pretty good between them. One thing I missed since the first Dirty Harry, he’s now bullet proof. Every bad guy misses even using machine guns. But in the first, he actually gets grazed at least. Wish they would have put him in more jeopardy like that in later sequels. It really strains credibility by the 5th (not that Dirty Harry was ever meant to be realistic).
The pacing is especially great in this one, no 2nd act problems, great little fan-service hints to previous films throughout, and some awesome action sequences. Yes, the last scene is beyond ridiculous but I’d still rank this one pretty high in the series. It’s a great send off for Dirty Harry.