This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Did you people see the same film I saw?

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The movie is below average in my opinion. Not very bad, but there is nothing new in this movie. There is nothing we haven't seen before, it's all clichées. It doesn't contribute anyting to movie history.

I really had to review this to vent my spleen. How bad is it? Let me count the ways. Long and rambling with no real plot. Doesn't the writer know about the three act structure? It was obvious from the start that there was another reason for the incident at the end of the jeweller robbery but it took the Sweeney a long time to figure it out. Winstone and his tough Cockney geezer stuff is so boring particularly now he's a fat old git. And fat old its don't get young women except in the movies and on TV and why couldn't we see her arse instead of his fat old one? The proper tension between Haskins and Regan that was in the TV series isn't there. Damian Lewis as Haskins just seems to share a lot of sympathy for Regan's approach whereas Haskins in the TV series always had an eye on upstairs, probably because he was a Superintendent not a DCI like Lewis is. And Carter in the series was a sergeant not a DC as in the film. No constable not enough a DCI could afford to live where Carter lives. They use the term 'Officer' and 'gun and badge' and 'You have the right to remain silent' which are all American terms...Did they think that would help them succeed in America when 'Sarge' and 'Inspector' and a different caution would have been understandable? And overuse of Canary Wharf is a sign of low budget and totally unrepresentative of London. It's easier and cheaper to film in CW than in real London and as a result too many films and TV feature the grim background. Carter is a joke, looks like a bum and looks like he couldn't fight out of a paper bag. The music at the end has an arrangement that nods slightly to the great theme of the TV series. I only watched it to the end because I was stuck in a strange country and had paid money to download it. What a lot of rubbish.

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!

The Sweeney is an attempt to somehow capture the essence of the London Flying Squad, but in doing so it seriously loses the plot.I was reminded of the old TV Series Minder which saw over acted formulaic cliché - not something you'd expect these days perhaps.The London East End accents presumably are to improve the "realism" but in reality are so heavy and mumbled they are hard to follow. I expect no-one in North America would have a chance in following the dialog!The romantic connection between the lead role (Regan) and DC Nancy Lewis is about as far-fetched as you can get - Regan is like a battle scarred old front row rugby player, about 30 years past his best. Lewis is half his age. It was gross!Action scenes are well put together and certainly entertain, if a little far fetched - the main shoot-out has Regan firing about 50 shots from his handgun. He does reload once, to his credit... but overall these work quite well.The musical score is actually not too bad and adds to the mood. But overall not a great effort and expect to be underwhelmed.