The Story: The first Dirty Harry sequel finds Detective Harry Callahan at odds with a gang of rookie rouge motorcycle cops (amusingly most of whom would be known faces later, like David Soul from Starsky and Hutch, Tim Matheson from Animal House, and Robert Urich), who are dispensing their own brand of justice on San Francisco's criminal element. They take on the cities mobsters, eliminating them, and making the mobsters believe it is a mob war. When Callahan is put on the case, he quickly begins to see the conspiracy, and finds that it goes deep into the department, making Harry and everyone around him a target.

The Film: One of the key ingredients to a good sequel is, why should we do it again?, what do we have to offer? The first Dirty Harry was groundbreaking in that it presented a radical mix of ideals, anti-authority/establishment with right wing justice. It helped throw out years of Dragent-like cops, noble and by the book, and presented one of the grayest characters in action filmdom. People were tired, the country was a mess, our government had been mired in cant win war- flooded with those images on tv (which is why 70's films like Harry were able to push the limits of film violence), and people wanted to see someone break the rules- stick it to the man, so to speak. Dirty Harry offered that release by showing a man who had given up on the hierarchy of the system but couldn't still not give up his pursuit of justice. So, how do you continue? Why, show Harry confronting something worse than himself. Any questions about Harry's actions, be they too extreme, are answered by having him confront guys worse than him, taking his viewpoint too far. But, its still falls prey to the dreaded disease of 'sequelitous'.

No doubt mapped out with appropriate testosterone by writers John Milius (Conan the Barbarian, Apocalypse Now, Extreme Prejudice) and Michael Cimino (Heavens Gate, The Deer Hunter), and under the eye of veteran tv man (Barreta, Columbo) Ted Post, Force stills pales to the Original Harry film. Although there is plenty of Harry cool-ness and general violence to forgive its story stumbles in pacing and lacking directorial flourish, its not quite as tight as the first Harry and has some gaping flaws. Oddly enough, its the obligatory scenes of violence and side plot character development that hinders Magnum Force. Many of the side plot scenes don't add much to the story. Even though they are meant to spice it up, they only slow it down. Such as- the story briefly tries to point Harry towards one particular cop being the psycho, but that is quickly dropped- Harry's dalliance with an anonymous dweller in his apartment complex, likewise, is an absolutely, empty, unnecessary, unrevealing look into his personal life- A bit at he beginning of the film with Harry foiling some highjackers, serves the film in no way whatsoever, and is just a lame excuse for a slow, anticlimactic action scene- The film also misses, by seemingly setting up the superior youth and shooting skills of the motorcycle cops, which you think would lead to a neat shoot-out finale, but drops it and once again, like most of the Harry films, it favors the obligatory "abandoned location finale" that falls pretty flat and never uses the marksmanship angle.

I guess the films ultimate fatal flaw is this- The first Harry had him tracking down basically one man, the psychopathic Scorpio, which not only hit home with the era because of the Zodiac killer, but leant itself to more interplay than the team of rookie rouge cops. There was a tension to be had in the first Harry that Force sadly lacks. Instead of making the rouge cops somewhat sympathetic, a step closer to Harry, they foil it by having the second murder be one involving innocent people getting killed, instantly making the rouge cops despicable. The plot makes it out to be the rouge cops wanting the murder to look like a mob hit, in order start a mob war, and point Harry towards thinking mobsters are resonsible, but Harry never really buys that. So why bother? It would have been much more interesting to make the viewer, as well as maybe Harry, sort of agree with the rouge cops throughout much of the film, only to have them cross the line, say, two-thirds of the way in and show them to be dangerous. There is that and just a few corners they could have cut to make a sharper film

After the unpleasantness of reviewing the dull, not-as-cool-as-it-used-to-be, Sudden Impact, now this is a little more like it. I know a lot of people prefer the Unforgiven , Perfect World, Bridges of Madison County credible, director Clint Eastwood, but for me, nothing quite beats the cool icon Eastwood of the Spaghetti Western and Dirty Harry days. Yeah, he may have more critical respect and artistic integrity now, but the man was already a character actor legend before he went downhill in the 80's and saw a revival in the 90's with Unforgiven. I guess its just my taste, but I prefer the underdog, the fringe actors and films, and that's what Eastwood used to represent. Sure, it has all the bad marks of a sequel and I could name a dozen 70's rough cop, Italian action/crime films that are better, but considering how much worse the other Harry sequels are, Magnum Force is decent enough entertainment. But, for the Love of God, make sure you pick up Dirty Harry first.

The DVD: Warner Brothers does a fairly bare release, but should no doubt appease fans quite well. Although they still haven't learned that people hate cardboard snapper cases. Geeez, WB get with the program. Picture- 16:9 anamorphic, very nice all around with good contrast, color and sharpness, a far, far cry from the old washed out, grainy vhs we all had to live with for the past twenty years. Sound- Very nice, clear and well rounded (for a 70's film) sound. 5.1 Dolby Digital, English and French with optional English, French, Spanish, Thai, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, and Japanese subs. Extras- 36 Chapters- Trailer (which completely gives away the ending)- A bunch of text sections labeled "Memorable Lines, Cast & Crew, On Location, and Behind the Scenes", that might as well have been liner notes- and, finally, an old 8 min WB promo for Magnum Force titled "The Hero Cop: Yesterday and Today" that mainly consists of a narrator talking about the film and shows some behind the scenes stuff.