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Director Burt Reynolds also stars as narcotics cop Tom Sharky, a 14-year veteran of the Atlanta police force who is busted down to vice (apparently the bowels of the police department) after a drug sting on a dealer results in an innocent bus driver getting shot (in an ineptly staged sequence). While rounding up hookers in his new position, Sharky almost immediately uncovers a connection between a prostitution ring and the popular candidate for the next governor of Georgia. While staking out the apartment of expensive call girl Dominoe (Rachel Ward), the candidate's number-one girl, Sharky believes he sees her murdered and links the politician and the prostitutes to a crime kingpin. Murky action programmer with potential--its subplot mirroring Otto Preminger's "Laura"--but the narrative is all gummed up with distractions (violent ones, including torture). Reynolds needn't mimic Dirty Harry; he has his own appeal, plus the bluesy, late-night mood he sets lingers in one's memory. Unfortunately, the confusing character interaction here is amateurish, while the maybe/maybe not dirty doings within the police force--as well as the inevitable emphasis on stunt work--is right off the assembly-line. Some good supporting work gives this one a boost, particularly by Ward (who was Golden Globe-nominated as New Star of the Year) and Richard Libertini (who has a madman's collection of faces). Grossing $35.6M on a $17.5M budget, the film was only a moderate hit. Perhaps the overlay of torture turned moviegoers off, which is certainly not helped by William A. Fraker's ugly cinematography. *1/2 from ****

The designer of an advanced supercomputer built deep within a mountain to control the nuclear weapon systems of the United States eventually comes to believe "Colossus may be built better than we thought" after it begins making demands and giving orders. Machine-with-a-God-complex drama, adapted from the 1966 novel "Colossus" by Dennis Feltham Jones, isn't particularly witty or special, though science-fiction fans tend to hold it in high regard. The screenplay by James Bridges has been well-researched, Gene Polito's color cinematography is very fine, yet the movie could have used more star-power in the casting (it's a bit dry). Ron Howard has been trying to get a remake off the ground since 2007. ** from ****

Telephone operator in small Texas town has dreams of being a stewardess and training in California, but her live-in boyfriend from down at the wire-producing factory hasn't any ambitions other than getting a raise. One might be tempted to call this fake-mercurial, fake-country-&-western drama an "Urban Cowboy" knock-off, though both films were in production at about the same time ("Hard Country" was shelved for a year before finally seeing a release in April 1981). The exaggerated Texas accents and segues to the local watering hole (where Tanya Tucker performs as a hometown girl who made good) are excruciating, though the picture did give us the feature film debut of fresh-faced Kim Basinger and she's attractive (and shares a funny scene with newcomer Daryl Hannah as her younger sister). Jan-Michael Vincent, on the other hand, is a washout; the actor no longer possesses the boyish appeal from just a few years prior, now looking dazed and ragged (nine years older than Basinger, Vincent doesn't convince as the kind of man she'd want to settle down with). Director David Greene has a good sense of how fast scenes should play, and his opening at the factory is surprisingly detailed, but this screenplay by Michael Martin Murphey (who also sings) and Michael Kane is just not that interesting. *1/2 from ****