User reviews

A modern-day remake of the hit TV show from the mid seventies, this British crime flick has lost none of the macho swagger, hard-boiled action and dubious morals that made its source material a fan favourite three and a half decades ago. Following the exploits of the London Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad, colloquially known as the Sweeney, writer-director Nick Love makes up for his predictable plot (which has more holes than a bullet-ridden car) by absolutely nailing the set pieces - the public Heat-esque shoot out in Trafalgar Square is outstanding - and ensuring there's never a long wait until the next loud car chase, stylish gun battle or lashing of the old ultra-violence. Ray Winstone's role as archaic Detective Inspector Jack Regan, whose methods of catching crooks is under heavy scrutiny, is the sort of gruff, don't-give-a-crap part that Winstone has perfected - although here his annoyingly forced upon accent is often hard to bear - whilst Ben Drew, aka Brit rapper Plan B, is charismatic enough to hide the lack of depth given to his second-in-charge Detective Constable George Carter. There's not much substance to this gritty thriller, but with its finely executed action sequences, unrelenting pace and cracking soundtrack, it's a greatly entertaining simple pleasure.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

After successfully thwarting an armed robbery, Jack Regan (Ray Winstone) and his Flying Squad team are still reprimanded for the heavy handed tactics they employed in getting the job done. But after a raid on a small jewellers, where a young woman is brutally executed at point blank range, the team find themselves thrust into a deadly and brutal battle with elusive and violent criminal Allen (Paul Anderson) who they will have to use all their wits to bring down.

Having taken a longer break than usual after his last film, the hugely disappointing (in my opinion, anyway) re-make of 1988's The Firm, Nick Love returns (or at least tries to) with a bang here with an adaptation, on which he fares slightly better, of the much loved 1970s TV series, updated to modern times, but losing none of the gritty, hard hitting style it apparently (I don't know, it was before my time) always had. The result is an unremarkable, under whelming effort that probably had the potential to be a lot better, but never falls below a certain standard that it simply doesn't do.

While bearing no physical similarity to John Thaw from the TV series, Winstone in the lead role naturally loses none of the cynicism and meanness that Thaw (apparently...remember) displayed, and is still a natural choice for the part. It's disconcerting that he's so grotesquely out of shape (even for his age), and adds a dash of baser, banal brutality to the part that loses him a moral edge, but doing what he's known best for, he doesn't disappoint. In Dennis Waterman's original role as his sidekick George Carter, Ben Drew fits his role more smoothly, and with his street wise patter and fashion sense, gives the film more appeal to the large section of the audience who will be too young to remember the original show. Hayley Atwell provides the eye candy as Winstone's much younger colleague, who's married to his uptight superior and, naturally, he's shagging behind his back. Finally, Anderson displays the most potential as the villain, but gets disappointingly little screen time to show his stuff.

Action wise, the film tries to go all Hollywood blockbuster, with an ambitious shoot out in Trafalgar Square and rounding itself off with a nifty car chase to collar the lead villain. While neither of these deliver like they could have, you still have to admire the effort. After a few years honing his craft and employing various styles to experiment with, this feels like Love's most accomplished and high scale effort, which doesn't make it his best but, you know, it's the kind of thing Americans like. ***

I'm old enough to remember the Thaw/Waterman TV series and my daughter is way too young but she's a fan of Plan B and there wasn't much else we fancied watching, so we gave this a go.

We quite enjoyed it. Our toes curled a bit in the Ray Winstone sex scenes and we giggled at the chubby middle aged Regan and his team chasing after the automatic weapon wielding gang with their little handguns ... and we raised our eyebrows at the overweight heavy smoking, heavy drinking detective not even slightly out of breath after running a mile, up and down stairs and through buildings .... so quite a lot of belief had to be suspended in order to watch this film. But once you got past all that, as a bit of escapist entertainment it wasn't half bad and although the plot was thin and the believability factor strained to the max, the performances were good and it definitely had its moments.

Not the worst film I've ever seen by a long road and nowhere near as bad as some of the reviews on here would have you believe.

Only I thought there was a lack of chemistry between the couple of protagonist lovers, it bothered me, the conspiracy plot is good, the character is also dubious ... Here less dubious and more honest than the replica "Elite Squad", regular movie...

Inspired by the British television police drama of the same name, 'The Sweeney' is Rough but Tough! Its a hardcore cop-drama, heightened by a solid central performance by the under-rated Ray Winstone.

'The Sweeney' Synopsis: A hardened detective in the Flying Squad of London's Metropolitan police, takes charge against criminals.

'The Sweeney' has a few faults & one in particular being its slow-paced narrative. The film unfolds lethargically in its first 45-minutes, which frankly, aren't captivating enough. However, the brilliantly executed action-sequences & Winstone's solidly stern performance as the tough cop, manage to hold your attention, even when these flaws pop-up.

Nick Love's Screenplay & Direction, both, are impressive. But his Writing leaves something to be desired. There is a lot of fun to be had here, but at times, the sequences come across as dry. Sharper Writing was the need here. Nonetheless, Love has Directed the film well & the stark look fits in perfectly. Cinematography & Editing are well-done, as well.

On the whole, 'The Sweeney' isn't remotely flawless, but its still a film to reckon with.

Does this movie have flaws? Are the characters having trouble in more than one way? Relationships are all over the place? Some people do not get enough screen time? Yes to all those questions. Does this on the other hand have a great mystery beginning, where you might not know what is going on and who is actually doing what? Yes and that confusion is great, because it could make you more aware of the movie. That is if you go completely unaware into the whole experience.

As always, I had not read anything about the plot, so I didn't know who the characters where and what their relationship towards each other would be. The really good actors help elevate this and make it able for the viewer to overlook a few flaws. Action scenes are really good (especially one concerning a very famous location in London, and if you listen to the commentary on how they shot it, you'll be even more amazed).

Not everyones cup of tea, but hopefully you can enjoy it as much as I did and as much as the filmmakers intended you to.

I had not heard / have not seen the TV-series, so I watched the film as a separate crime thriller - due to Ray Winstone's participation - and have no comparison or assessment moments with the series. In my opinion, the film is mostly credible, with some moments to please the audience thirst after fast variable chases and shootings. Main characters are elaborated as well, and Ray Winstone as Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Ben Drew as Detective Constable George Carter provide strong and memorable performances (I have always liked Winstone, but Drew was new to me). Unlike in most U.S. films, "good guys" get killed too, triggering in turn new wild events full of grief and revenge.

If you are not stuck into Inspector Morse or Midsomer Murders type of British series, then you may like The Sweeney - but here nothing is nice, neither people nor surroundings...

I read all the bad reviews on here and first thought I would have to give this a miss but then I thought again and remembered some of the movies on here that had been given glowing reviews and how bad they turned out to be.... so I thought I would give this a try.

I am pleased I did, yeah its not the greatest movie in the world and some of the dialogue was sometimes hard to make out (mumbling etc) but on the whole it was a fun ride. The action scenes were well put together with the camera views and music giving a great gritty atmosphere but not to gritty to make London look bleak like a lot of movies do. The movie only cost around £2 million to make which in this day and ages is superb with moves costing ten times as much not being as good and the fact that it has made £4 million is great for the British movie industry. I am not sure if this was made by a British movie company but even if it wasn't (I bet it was as they know how to make money for a movie go a long way) it is still good revenue for the UK.

I am not sure why people keep going on about the main character (Played by Ray Winstone) having sex with a younger women was so terrible and funny etc. This DOES happen in real life I personally have seen this many times so not really far fetched.

On the whole an enjoyable action movie which did not cost the earth to make and was a good nights entertainment. Plus I am old enough to remember the original Sweeney and this does not damage the memory of that

One last point... DONG take the reviews on here to seriously. Use them as a rough guide but always watch the movie yourself.

I bet these folks had a real laugh making this film. I went to watch it with my teenage son and we thought it was OK - pretty much none stop action. I remember the old TV series but this is not the 70's. (God knows how the real flying squad conducted themselves in the 70's - I'd bet it was worse than this - but not so many guns!). The 2 main characters played by Winstone and Drew were excellent (and some of the villains). The story was a bit suspect though - and maybe the script..

I bet most of you end up having a look at this on DVD/etc (meaning illegal download) - get your trousers on your nicked).

I wonder if they will do a Sweeny2?

So Britain's started remaking some off its old TV shows. This can be taken either way. Either we're so desperate for entertainment that EVERYTHING needs to be remade. Or "The Sweeney" was such a old TV show and only well known in Britain. That it more than warrants a modern take in an attempt too appeal to the masses.

Now this really is a modern take on the 70's TV drama, and some off what's been done works in this new "Sweeney's" favour. For one, there's way more action in this movie than in the older version, and the characters seem way more brutal and violent, like the time they are now in.

Realistically, not many people will remember seeing the original "Sweeney." So I don't know if there's much point comparing the two. Either way, this flick is a reasonably enjoyable action movie. Ray Winston fits the lead part well, but the part I found hard too swallow, was Drew ? As his sidekick. This guy was great in "Harry Brown" as a bad-guy. But seems totally miscast as the cop sidekick here, given his usual reputation.

The third big screen version of The Sweeney is certainly much better than the two abysmal offerings from the 70s. The strong point of The Sweeney was always characters and stories. That never translated into the 90+ minutes format. Love certainly creates a film with a credible storyline and lots of action. It is very violent but so was the original TV show. All in all it's rather a satisfying action film well made on a small budget. However, I found the acting awful. George Carter was played by a complete non-entity and Ray Winstone seems to have been on Ritaline. He mumbles as though giving a Marlon Brando impression and tries too hard to be John Thaw. There are some minor issues like strange Americanisms in the dialogue or streets that are just a little too empty.

Being over a certain age, the original television series and film, is still fondly remembered.

Thus, this re-make, whilst still maintaining many of the original attributes and features of the original, does rather struggle to reconcile 20th century policing methods with 21st century living.

The casting choices were excellent, with Ray Winstone and Ben Drew carving out excellent characterizations of Jack Regan and George Carter respectively. It takes a couple of born and bred Londoners to pull this transformation off successfully and this pairing worked well for me.

The plot may have had a few holes in it and didn't really stand up to too much scrutiny, however that can easily be said for the original production of both 'The Sweeney' and many other films from similar genres.

All in all, this was a film which is commercially sound, lends itself well to the big screen and reminds me of a bygone age, when policemen were allowed to police and the villains all knew exactly what would happen to them if they got caught. Maybe life would be a whole lot better if we rolled back the clock a little!

I read a few posts on the internet about how mainstream cinema is pillaging the classics due to a lack of new ideas. Now, I have never watched the TV show The Sweeney (in fact, I had to be told that 'Sweeney' was cockney rhyming slang for 'Sweeney Todd/Flying Squad') so I can't compare the film version to it source material.

However, if you can get your head round the fact that there is a movie set in London that DOESN'T feature Danny Dyer, then you might enjoy it for being a pretty solid British cop/heist movie.

We're introduced to The Sweeney, i.e. a hard-as-nails bunch of London police officers, who deal with bank robberies, led by Ray Winstone. They go about their business happily roughing up criminals when their department is invaded by an Internal Affairs man, hell-bent on cleaning up their act. If that wasn't bad enough, they have to find a team of robbers who went as far as to execute one of the innocent members of the public during the raid.

It trundles along quite nicely. The car chases are nothing to write home about, but there is a pretty tense shoot-out in and around Trafalgar Square which is like the British version of the similar gun battle in Heat.

If you're looking for gritty and hard-nosed police, action films (and can put up with a sprinkling of cockney clichés and suspend your disbelief long enough to believe that Hayley Atwell would genuinely find Ray Winstone REALLY attractive) then you should enjoy this. Although, I should warn you: just as there's no Danny Dyer, there's not as much screen-time dedicated to Damian Lewis as there probably should be.