A hardened detective in the Flying Squad of London's Metropolitan police. Based on the '70s UK TV show.
Even without Danny Dyer and a followable backstory, Nick Love's reboot has verve and theatricality.
A shootout around Trafalgar Square is efficiently executed, and Love has ingeniously managed to stretch his tiny £5 million budget to create a glamorous, glossy action flick. But it’s not The Sweeney.
The Sweeney is a refreshingly unironic gruff-fest in the spirit of the 70s show.
The Sweeney is a film out of time; a reboot that feels more dated than the original.
Ray Winstone is well cast, but that's about the only thing this remake gets right.
The action’s arresting but the dialogue’s not much cop in this well-played and enjoyable hardboiled British police thriller.
The new Sweeney, like the old Sweeney, might be the stuff of human rights lawyers' nightmares, but they're really still sweeties at heart. A sequel looks inevitable.
In the end, while The Sweeney occasionally aims to do something different, it’s far too content to be just another London geezers-with-guns misfire, as evidenced by an amped, car-crashing finale that plays like a Top Gear challenge gone wrong.
Directed by Nick Love (The Football Factory) with a clear stylistic debt to Michael Mann’s Heat it looks impressive, however, and does conjure up excitement in the shoot outs, especially one set in Trafalgar Square.
It comes to something when the hero is so despicable that you actually start rooting for the villains.
Shut it!
[A] pretty ordinary updating.
Unreconstructed tosh, but if you have a hankering for geezer-isms, cocking guns and swinging dicks, it might just be the guiltiest of guilty pleasures.
Thuggish and repetitive.
Role reversal breathes new life into a classic
You're nicked! The Sweeney is back.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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