The Sweeney (2013)

The Worst Film Ever

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This was so over the top, it was almost funny, but came across as ridiculous. I do like the 'all action nonsense' genre, as long as it's not too stupid. This crosses the line into the peoples republic of cockney 'too stupid' I recall the original series was at least plausible (ish) but this goes into a rather weird parody of 'cockney villains and tough cockney coppers, innit mate" Rather a waste of some talented actors Watch once if you're bored or need a laugh 6/10

Just reading the title you can guess the story line. This is the worst cliché blokey caricature of a Neanderthal police force I've ever seen. The swearing and violence are continuous as is the misogyny. Considering the appalling current reputation of the British Police force this is probably the biggest PR disaster in years. The dialogue is as primitive and dire as the acting. Winstone and Plan B are clumsy cartoon characters of crooks playing policemen. Winstone's relationship with the lawyers wife is the most unbelievable part of the whole film. I'm actually having trouble writing anything more about this as I really feel it isn't worth of any more words. Should have gone straight to Men and Motors.

What exactly did happen here then?The original TV series would turn in its grave with this 21st century remake. The 1970s Classic we all knew and loved has been disgraced here, and to tell you the truth I never really had high expectations for this film when I heard they were making it, but the finished article is so much worse than I could have imagined.Jack Regan originally played by John Thaw who portrayed the character as a no nonsense hard man but professional all the while, which is more than can be said for the Ray Winstone edition. I admired Winstone in Ripleys Game, and he fit the bill perfectly for that film but in this one he's made Regan an unprofessional thug of a police officer with more use of the F word than Gordon Ramsey ever did. His character is made even less believable by his much younger (and much prettier) love interest. Why she would be interested in a man like this is beyond me but there it is.Now George Carter, no surprise here that this portrayal would be a disaster too. What we have here is a complete chav who just got outta jail to become a respected law enforcer. OK! when does that ever happen in real life. He was totally unwatchable, totally irritating and so not the right actor for the part AGAIN.The whole film makes no sense at all, I doubt the writer or director ever bothered to watch the original series but if they did they must have though it was dull or something. Bad direction, lack of typical Cockney humour, plot and likable Cockney characters.Totally shocking. Don't buy it, don't even watch it online.

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.