Sharky's Machine

Sharky's Machine (1981) is an American crime thriller you can watch online on iFILM, directed by and starring Burt Reynolds alongside Rachel Ward, Vittorio Gassman, Henry Silva and Charles Durning. Reynolds the actor plays the lead; Reynolds the director gives the film a harder edge than his comedies of that era.

After a blown undercover operation, detective Tom Sharky gets kicked down to the vice unit — the department where careers go quiet. It turns out to be the right place at the right time. Sharky stumbles onto a conspiracy that runs from street-level prostitution up to a prominent local politician. He builds a makeshift team from fellow castoffs and begins surveillance. Along the way he falls for a woman he has only watched through a monitor.

The film is slower and moodier than a typical 1981 action picture, closer to a Southern-tinged noir than a shoot-'em-up. The surveillance sequences build genuine unease, and the eventual confrontation earns its violence. Stream Sharky's Machine (1981) online on iFILM.