Wonderful character development!

Better Late Then Never

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

THE SWEEPER is another solidly enjoyable action flick from PM Entertainment, made at the height of their powers when they were churning out one action-packed bit of spectacle after another. This one has a great opening car chase involving supporting actor Jeff Fahey, before the plot moves on to maverick cop C. Thomas Howell (virtually unrecognisable behind long hair and a beard) and his efforts to get revenge on the gangsters behind his father's death. The plot is nothing special here, but there are a couple of familiar faces in the supporting cast (Ed Lauter, Fulton Perry) and the action comes thick and fast, with all of the hand-to-hand combat, shoot-outs, vehicle chases, explosions, and big, slow motion crashes that PM used to shoot so well.

C. Thomas Howell plays a combustible, trigger-happy, Los Angeles cop in the "Lethal Weapon" mode in Joseph Merhi's formulaic but above-average crime thriller "The Sweeper" with Ed Lauter. Merhi's fast-moving, 101-minute epic evokes memories of the "Dirty Harry" sequel "Magnum Force." In other words, when the legal system fails to serve the public, a secret organization called Justice Incorporated steps in to resolve the situation with extreme prejudice. The action opens with an exciting prologue that traces our protagonist's back story. Mark Goddard's father was a police sergeant (Jeff Fahkey), and he was a good cop until a hit squad strike at his home and killed him. One of the killers terrorizes Mark rather than kill him. Indeed, the assailant thrusts a revolver into Mark's hands and urges him to shoot him in the head, but Mark cannot bring himself to commit murder. Years later, our hero works for the LAPD like his dad. The mystery about who killed his parents haunts our hero's every waking minute. Goddard's team has been getting sloppy. One of them is stabbed by a suspect who preys on ATM users. Our fearless but pugnacious hero chases the knife-wielding maniac atop a high building where they battle it out. Eventually, Mark loops a length of cable around the assailant's neck and plunges with him into the air some twenty feet or more above the ground. Of course, the guy dies by strangulation. Later, when he arrests a child pornographer, Mark loses his cool when the suspect gives him the benefit of his smart lip, and a public brawl ensues. Mark is the bane of the force and his boss alerts Internal Affairs about him because he is fed up with Mark. The action scenes are competently done, and the performances are strong, with C. Thomas Howell showing his tougher side. One of the best scenes has our hero pursuing an assailant down the highway with the villain knocking huge metal chemical bottles off a flatbed truck and shooting slugs in them so they explode in front of our tenacious hero as he swerves behind him. Our hero manages to field one bottle on the hood of his car, smash the villain from the behind so that the bottle bounces through the back window of his car, and then he shoots the bottle and blows the bad guy to kingdom come!

Ever since he was a young boy, there was no question that Mark Goddard (Howell) would become a good cop like his father Dale (Fahey). When bad guys gun down his whole family, it traumatizes him, but he grows up to become a police officer anyway - but naturally his unfortunate past has given him a chip on his shoulder and a proclivity towards violence. Sure, the recipients of said violence are criminal scum, and this allows him entry into a super-secret fraternity of criminal-killers called J.I. or "Justice Incorporated". If you have nine kills to your credit, you are allowed entry. Even though the naturally suspicious Goddard is wary, he reluctantly joins because the leader, Molls (Lauter) is persuasive, his associate Rachel (Dalton) is seductive, and he gets to go on off-the-books missions and kill as many bad guys as he wants and still get paid. But the awesomeness of this setup quickly wears thin as Molls hides a sinister secret. All Goddard wants to do is see his son, and reconnect with his estranged wife Melissa (Gunn)...but will he get the chance before all his incredibly dangerous doings get to him first? This is an excellent movie. God bless PM, they've done it again. This ranks right up there with Zero Tolerance (1994) and Last Man Standing (1996) with the best of the PM's. C. Thomas Howell is great as the troubled cop on the edge, and while other actors in this situation would have relied on simply having a goatee, sunglasses, necklaces and a leather vest, not to mention an awesome House of Pain baseball cap (all of which he has because he's a badass, duh), Howell actually adds a lot of care and subtlety to his role. You can see his rage issues and suspicions without him saying anything. It really is CTH at his best. Very under-appreciated.Speaking of things that are under-appreciated, this movie is packed with killer and hugely enjoyable stunts and action setpieces in the true PM tradition. It takes tons of work and skill to pull these things off, but they go by in such a flash, people tend not to think about all the talent, artistry and labor that goes into them. You've got to admit, PM brings it, and brings it hard, and you CAN'T not love it.There's plenty of familiar faces on show as well, besides the aforementioned CTH, Dalton, Gunn and Lauter, there's also John Ryan of American Cyborg: Steel Warrior (1993) fame as the head of the "Concrete Lion" gang, PM mainstay Kathrin Middleton, the legendary Felton Perry, and lastly Max Slade, who famously was one of the 3 Ninjas (1992). Of the supporting cast, we saved the best for last: Jeff Fahey. Perhaps the only flaw in this movie is that we would have liked to see more Fahey. His role is small. But it's important and fits the plot, we understand.PM understands that stunts aren't worth jack if you don't have characters that you care about that are in danger. Thanks to some above average acting and writing, they can now marry that to their top-notch stuntwork. PM puts in actual effort and it pays off in dividends.We wholeheartedly recommend The Sweeper! For more action insanity, please visit: www.comeuppancereviews.com

I'm not going to re-hash what others have said about the storyline in this movie, so, I'll comment on the other aspects. As a B-movie, the action scenes are rather well directed. They are easy to follow, with lots of bullets and explosions. The stunt work is very good, with lots of good surprises. The movie has 2 fairly good car chases, the first with the exploding gas cylinders, the last ending with a biplane. The acting in the movie is nothing to write home about, but really, this isn't the Royal Shakespeare Company, it's a manly action movie.Bullets? Yup. Bad words? Yup. Bare breasts? Yup. Booms? Yup. What else could you ask for?