Sweeney 2 (1978)

Thanks for the memories!

So much average

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Wonderful example of a great British series John Thaw was a fine actor who always brought truth and a high emotional content to the screen,Dennis Waterman is well Dennis Waterman but a capable enough actor to play the sidekick.The film itself is of course a child of its time yes the wallpaper/clothes/cars are all horribly dated as are the simple "moral" attitude's towards women :smoking:drinking etc,but lets remember the "hard men" around in those days were just that "hard men" and they existed on both sides of the fence.Its also got to be remembered that this was a spin off film and that the budget was never going to be high and frankly it did not need to be high as this story does not demand it,perhaps the film does "sag" a little in places and the Malta shoot added very little to the plot,the body count/violence is pushed up but then I guess thats what producers/film makers thought that freed of the shackle's of television you had to go down this path.What the film does have going for it are good to excellent actors who knew there stuff, writers in the shape of the kennedy Martins who also knew how to pitch/sell the police plots in a " tight" structure manner,and the capturing of a time and place IE 70s London which no longer exist.So overlook the pacing the plot holes and the 70s morality and enjoy the snappy patter kipper ties(now you know you had one when you younger) and the Ford motors but above all John Thaw who was one of the uks finest actors in any medium or in Regans way' get your trousers on Tinkerbell your nicked

"The Sweeney" as a TV series was often a sharp,funny and reasonably authentic hour or so of entertainment.Stretched to a full - length feature and opened out it loses much of its impact and immediacy.The change of media does the concept no favours.It's the same old same old fleshed out with a bit of gritty location filming in some of the seedier parts of our capital city.The only aspect that sets it apart from all it's predecessors is the appearance of the late Mr Denholm Elliot as the bent former guv'nor of Regan's squad who with the ambivalence of most of his ilk still wants to see the bad guys put away. Otherwise it's the usual Mullets at fifty paces stuff. The head villain uses a gold Purdey shotgun.A friend of mine on the real Sweeney once nicked a blagger who stole a Purdey worth £30,000,sawed the barrels down,did one over the pavement bringing him less than a third of the value of the shotgun he had stolen and ended up doing a ten.Jack Regan would have enjoyed that.

In my review of the television series I mentioned that THE SWEENEY has its episodes split between " comedy " episodes and " violent " episodes and after seeing the two film versions of the show this theory certainly holds up . The first SWEENEY film was a gritty political thriller with a high body count while the second film features a lot of humerous moments like the big John appeal box , " Remember- rubber is recyclable " , " When I said you couldn`t organise a p*ss up at a brewary George I was wrong " and there`s a running gag involving driver Robert Soames . That`s not to say that this film should be classed as a black comedy , just that it contains darkly comic moments like the original series did . As has been noted the plot which involves a quasi fascist bunch of bank robbers could have easily have been made as a one hour episode ( And the film seems to have the budget of a one hour television episode ) but at least - Unlike the film versions of LOST IN SPACE and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - this film resembles the television show it`s based upon

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).