Sweeney 2

Extremely funny movie. Dialog is peppered with f**s, quite modern really! Fashions raise a smile, nice to see the old cars on the roads. John Thaw and Dennis Waterman are excellent. There are also loads of new characters in the Flying Squad who are equally as good as the two leads. The plot is preposterous of course, but who cares?

By the way, it appears that the $100,000 from each raid was to repay a loan. That much was mentioned in the film. Very silly though.

Recommended (particularly for the larfs).

Before he was taking down on corruption charges, Judd had assigned DI Regan the case of a gang of bank robbers. With Judd out of the picture, the Flying Squad keep the case as a mark of respect – just as the robberies become more violent than ever, with the latest getaway leaving a trial of bodies in their wake. With precious few leads, Regan and his team get to work, all too aware that it is only a matter of time before the gang strike again.

In a way Life on Mars has helped and hindered The Sweeney for viewers looking back on it with little knowledge of it the first time around. I was far too young for the series when it was aired and never bothered with it when it was repeated later in our multichannel world. Life on Mars has affectionately referenced the world of The Sweeney and this has meant that, although I am now aware of the genre, I'm also less likely to take it as seriously as it was intended. However watching this film it is evident that The Sweeney didn't take itself too seriously either and it appears to be enjoying its 70's excess and tough non-PC characters just as much as Life on Mars did. The air of humour is obvious but it doesn't take away from the tough tone that the majority has to it.

Of course this is not to say that the film itself is much cop and personally I didn't think much of it once the fun retro novelty of the film had worn off. The plot is a bit too thin to stretch to the feature-length running time and the strain does show at many points. This also means that it moves too slowly at times and loses the sense of urgency that it has in its better moments. The cast offer little but the touch male of the period. Looking back it is odd to see Thaw, Waterman, Elliott, Hawthorne and others in this type of role but, within the context of this film, they do enough to carry it.

Like my fellow reviewer Theo already said though, at least it does seem to be common with the original tone of the series, for better or worse. The novelty value got me into it and the touches of humour and tough style were more or less sufficient to make it entertaining, but regardless it is what it is.

When British cinema of the 70s is discussed, "Sweeney 2" rarely gets a mention. Yet it illustrates the changing times as vividly as many better-known films. The blazing action of "Sweeney!" is replaced by a thoughtful film that, although more low-key, is perhaps a more accurate reflection of the television series.

Regan and Carter are on the trail of a gang of bank-robbers who, from their idyllic base on Malta, occasionally return to Britain (a country they believe to be "finished") to carry out violent and well-planned raids. The men lead a luxurious communal lifestyle with their wives and children yet it is one financed by thrusting sawn-off shotguns into the faces of terrified bank cashiers and taking hostages (one of whom, a young woman, is killed in the raid that opens the film). They seem to symbolise the souring of the 60s dream.

Other details are equally telling. A young schoolteacher tells George Carter that she "doesn't like policemen". No longer does the force command widespread public respect. Regan's boss (the excellent Denholm Elliott) is facing imprisonment on corruption charges, reflecting the corruption trials that so stained the image of the Metropolitan Police in the 70s.

On their abortive trip to Malta to try to interview the men, Regan and Carter are plainly jealous and angry when they witness the lifestyle of their targets - a far cry from their grimy world of bacon sandwiches from burger vans and knees-ups down the local. But by the end of "Sweeney 2" and a year before Margaret Thatcher won power in Britain, it is the defiantly working-class coppers who have the last laugh, joined by their girlfriends for a boozy celebration - while the wives of the bank robbers prove less reliable.

Euston Films had a track record of producing high-quality television and (in this case) film. "Sweeney 2" fully confirms this. There are good supporting performances from Nigel Hawthorne, Lewis Fiander and Derrick O'Connor plus an exciting score by Tony Hatch. The action scenes, although lesser in number than in the first film, are superbly handled by one of the TV show's action specialists, director Tom Clegg.

Recommended.

I will go with the majority opinion here. Sweeney 2 definitely beats Sweeney as the best film spin-off. No silly conspiracy stories, just good old fashioned blaggers and Regan and Carter doing what they do best. Not to say that Sweeney was a bad film, just it was too far removed from the series.

The story pits our favourite coppers against a gang of ex-pat blaggers who travel back to England from Malta every time they need more funds. As a highly professional, ruthless group, they are not easy to catch and Regan finds himself under the cosh, being pressured by his boss (Nigel Hawthorn) to get a result before the inquiry is taken away from them.

Sweeney 2 is more than just an extended Sweeney episode. It's considerably stronger in terms of both violence and bad language that even the ground-breaking series never approached. The fact that in the cinema it was certified 'AA' (now 15) but has always been an X/18 rated video shows that it hasn't mellowed over time.

Although the film drags badly in the middle, this is more than compensated for by the spectacular action scenes and a tense final 25 minutes. The scene where the blaggers crash a Ford Cortina through a shop window, and leaving a police car trailing in it's wake, is an absolute corker and one of the iconic images from the film (look at the video cover if you don't believe me).

Although Sweeney 2 is very much a film for fans of the series, I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes a good police yarn. There is definite nostalgia value of the scenes of '70's London and it's great playing 'spot the familiar TV actor' as the film included the likes of Ken Hutchinson, Brian Hall, Georgina Hale and Derrick O'Connor.

This film is rarely shown and so it was a treat to watch it the other day. The first thing you notice is the liberal use of the f-word which probably did the film no favours in the 1970's as the TV series was watched, in the main, by under 15's. In fact the general level of violence has been greatly increased in this film spin-off, especially towards the end when the shootings, explosions and subsequent body count goes off the scale.

There are also liberal views and references to women's breasts (a nod towards the predominantly male audience). However, the old formula of the tv series that enderes it to so many 20-30 somethings still permeates the film. This includes car chases, scraps, extremely non-PC moments, and amusingly comic overtones, especially the odd scene where the bomb squad and sweeney have a booze-up in a hotel knowing that a device is being defused in one of the rooms (an incident that today would plaster the front pages of the newspapers for months afterwards). Reagan and Carter are a brilliant double act and their supporting colleagues (especially the scruffy, nose picking, Welsh DC Jellyneck) give an air of "Keystone cops" to the whole film. Mention must be made of the dreadful 70's fashions that always added to the enjoyment and interest of the series. Lots of famous supporting cast including Denholm Elliot in a small role as a corrupt ex chief inspector.