“Magnum Force” is an average sequel to the enjoyable original “Dirty Harry”. “Magnum Force” tries a lot of the tricks we commonly see in sequels but it never amounts to much and it ends up being a weak outing overall.

In “Magnum Force”, someone is going around dressed as a traffic cop, pulling people over and then killing criminals that range from crime bosses to prostitution ring leaders to drug dealers. Assigned to the case is reckless police officer Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood “Bronco Billy”, “Million Dollar Baby”). With Callahan hot on the trail, it isn’t long before the killer is revealed.

I didn’t feel the love this time around when Eastwood donned the gun and holster as one of cinema’s most famous cops. They tried to expand on his personal life a little more in this one (a common trick in movie sequels) but it didn’t work well at all. Also, I felt the catchphrase in this one (‘A man’s got to know his limitations’) wasn’t among the franchise’s better quotes. The villains in this entry are not as great as the other villains in the series as they don’t really seem as evil or as sick as in the other films so that did not do the film any favours.

“Magnum Force” has some poor shootouts, some average car chases and a relatively sloppy script. The film certainly wasn’t terrible and it at least felt like a sequel to “Dirty Harry”, it just didn’t feel like a good one. It’s arguably the worst film in the franchise and this one seems like just a sequel without any new spin on it, which the later sequels had. The film isn’t a rehash but it definitely doesn’t attempt to do much that’s new. It’s one movie that I don’t feel is worth watching.