Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Burt in top form, January 1, 2001
Burt Reynolds gets beat up so much in this film, it's a wonder he can make love to Dyan Cannon on top of a pool table mid-movie! A convoluted action-genre exercise designed to show off it's star, and Reynolds is very low-key, self-depreciating, and sexy in his Cosmo-pin-up era. Dyan Cannon looks even better, though she's given little to do as a woman involved second-hand in a murder. Pretty good for a one-time viewing, but I wouldn't buy it.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Good PI Offering & One Of Reynolds Best, November 5, 2004
This movie happened just as Burt Reynold's star was starting to shine. It was before he got caught in formula driven audience (of the time) pleasers, and it's an example of one of the things he did best. You can add this to Deliverance, Sharkey's Machine and Starting Over as the ones he hit out of the park.
It updates the down and out private investigator tale, and it does it with a gritty, contemporary style. Reynolds is believable, witty and tough (his stuntman days kick in here and much of what we see on screen- including that fall, is him).
The story is well crafted (and pre-Iran/Contra- which make it really interesting- the 'sales pitch scene' at the army base being priceless). It came and went pretty fast in the theatres but it had some real style that was overlooked. The lines are witty: " Why did you pick me? " " You weren't the first choice. " " Oh... 2nd or 3rd? " " No... the 56th. " " Next time lie, okay? "
Dyan Cannon balances Reynolds, and the rest of the support cast play the mood out well. Jerry Goldsmith's score gave it a real bounce, too. Morris the Cat from the famous old commercials even does a guest stint as Reynold's cat (no voice overs, though), and the film offers an interesting example of how diverse a pool table can be!
If you didn't like Reynold's work, watch this and you'll like him in this. If you did like him... watch this and enjoy what he did best. This is a good PI picture with a story that had some reality to it. It makes you laugh but gets you nervous about whose minding the store at your local army base!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Forties retread with Seventies violence..., January 12, 2007
In "Shamus," Burt Reynolds is a New York private eye afraid of big dogs and keeps a beautiful ginger cat...
He lives in a single room and sleeps on a pool table... He is quite capable of pushing a heroin addict's face into the garbage... He is certainly the 1970's version - almost in comic-strip - of the private investigator...
Reynolds lives cheaply, yet is hired to pursue a theft of diamonds; he is big and sexy, and the gorgeous Dyan Cannon is only too happy to dally with him at the drop of a clue; and he is apparently so tough that he can take all manner of beatings and emerge unscathed...
It is doubtful if he is the sort of man one would want to introduce to one's maiden aunt (the one with all the money), but he is certainly a character to fulfill all the audience's fantasies of violence, sex and thrills...
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