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Double bill featuring both big screen spin-offs from the classic 1970s TV crime drama. In 'Sweeney!' (1976) a multinational oil cartel starts blackmailing the British Minister for Energy in order to secure its position in the world market. Inspector Regan (John Thaw) and Sgt Carter (Dennis Waterman) of the Flying Squad are soon called in to investigate. In 'Sweeney 2' (1978) the high-speed pursuit of a gang of ruthless bank robbers results in the death of an innocent bystander and the near fatal injury of Regan's favourite driver. Ordered by their new chief Dilke (Nigel Hawthorn) to apprehend the criminals by whatever means, Regan and Carter find themselves relying on the information of their old boss Jupp (Denholm Elliot), who has just been sent down on corruption charges.
From the Back Cover
Sweeney!
John Thaw is Regan, a heavy-drinking womanizer, tough as old boots and bitterly resentful of the interference from his know-nothing superiors. Regan’s partner is Carter (Dennis Waterman), younger, slicker but no less hard than his boss. Together they make up the meanest, toughest and best-known team to ever hit the small screen. Now sit back and enjoy their first big screen outing. Shut it!
John Thaw is Regan, a heavy-drinking womanizer, tough as old boots and bitterly resentful of the interference from his know-nothing superiors. Regan’s partner is Carter (Dennis Waterman), younger, slicker but no less hard than his boss. Together they make up the meanest, toughest and best-known team to ever hit the small screen. Now sit back and enjoy their first big screen outing. Shut it!
Sweeney 2
Sweeney 2 gets off to an exciting start and the suspense of how Regan and Carter are going to nail the crooks is kept up to the very end. But the compulsive appeal of the movie for repeated viewing lies in the crisp, salty dialogue written by Troy Kennedy Martin (creator of the TV series Z Cars) and the sardonic humour that Thaw and Waterman bring to the partnership of Regan and Carter. Nothing can shake their loyalty to each other or tempt them into accepting bribes for bending the law.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
It is always very difficult to migrate the small screen success to the big screen, but here this cult '70s cop drama really gets the treatment that it deserves. The first offering is laden with many actors now household names, and shows a young Lynda Bellingham as a high class call girl (difficult to imagine after 'All creatures great and small!) with Barry Foster (Van der Valk) as her pimp and ruthless press agent for a Government minister. The action is fast and opens up the characters of Regan and Carter Well. Colin Welland also makes an appearance, as he did in the second series.
It is in the follow up Sweeney 2 however that it all comes right with the dream team of Kennedy Martin, Clegg and Childs giving the characters all they should have. In addition The music score by Tony Hatch adds a lot to the suspense. The language is more in keeping with gritty coppers on a serious crime investigation, plus there is gratutious nudity so popular in the period.
The Action is always interesting and realistic, and putting the two films back to back is the best way to see the developments and realisation of the scripts and characters. Highly recommended, paricularly if you have the video versions already as these editions are far superior. The 5 star rating given is in the context of Sweeney productions rather than as a world cinema ranking. Its' appeal is more to fans than the general public
It is in the follow up Sweeney 2 however that it all comes right with the dream team of Kennedy Martin, Clegg and Childs giving the characters all they should have. In addition The music score by Tony Hatch adds a lot to the suspense. The language is more in keeping with gritty coppers on a serious crime investigation, plus there is gratutious nudity so popular in the period.
The Action is always interesting and realistic, and putting the two films back to back is the best way to see the developments and realisation of the scripts and characters. Highly recommended, paricularly if you have the video versions already as these editions are far superior. The 5 star rating given is in the context of Sweeney productions rather than as a world cinema ranking. Its' appeal is more to fans than the general public
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By M. J. Jones
Format:DVD
Great stuff. A shameless world of birds, shooters, guvnors and cars like your dad drove..
This is how the Bill used to be before they adopted soap-opera style plots and policemen and women who look like catalogue models. The Sweeney movies are a wonderful mix of vicious villains and grumpy, randy, chain smoking, drink-driving policemen. Yes the clothes and decor are hilarious (check out Carter's migraine-inducing bathroom wallpaper in the 1st movie)but they are absorbing, exciting thrillers. Sweeney 2 is my favourite, as the action is offset by a surprising amount of humour. The bickering, occasionally bumbling policemen ( the brewery stake-out is hysterical)and the running gags of Regan and the telephonist and his frustration with his new driver make the characters that little bit more human than your average uk police show of the time. John Thaw's potrayal of shock and frustration at the bloody climax is truly moving.His rapport with Dennis Waterman makes them one of THE great double acts of '70s tv
Wonderful un-pc fun
This is how the Bill used to be before they adopted soap-opera style plots and policemen and women who look like catalogue models. The Sweeney movies are a wonderful mix of vicious villains and grumpy, randy, chain smoking, drink-driving policemen. Yes the clothes and decor are hilarious (check out Carter's migraine-inducing bathroom wallpaper in the 1st movie)but they are absorbing, exciting thrillers. Sweeney 2 is my favourite, as the action is offset by a surprising amount of humour. The bickering, occasionally bumbling policemen ( the brewery stake-out is hysterical)and the running gags of Regan and the telephonist and his frustration with his new driver make the characters that little bit more human than your average uk police show of the time. John Thaw's potrayal of shock and frustration at the bloody climax is truly moving.His rapport with Dennis Waterman makes them one of THE great double acts of '70s tv
Wonderful un-pc fun
29 of 33 people found the following review helpful
By Kentspur
VINE™ VOICE
Format:DVD
There is a bit of a snooty myth going around that the Sweeney movies weren't up to much. Unpleasant cash-ins with very little to recommend them.
I must contest this view. 'Sweeney' - the most maligned - is a pretty good crime thriller. Okay, it's not Jack and George leaning on a 'snout' to get the 'blaggers' in the typical Sweeney way, however, as a sort-of political thriller, it holds together.
Regan is framed and off the force. Can he get back? Well, of course, but he also puts paid to a massive, American-led conspiracy. Diane Keen is great and, gosh, you do get to see a lot of her and the Oxo woman is a high class call girl! Goodness. Great period feel and I actually thought the ending was pretty sweet.
I was less convinced by Sweeney 2, which is generally felt superior because Troy Kennedy Martin wrote the script. Don't get me wrong, it is tremendous fun, but why these blaggers were shooting their own team members if they looked like getting caught was beyond me. Seventies blaggers were not famatics, they were professional criminals.
Nevertheless - great entertainment. Regan, drunk, trying to chat up the woman from the The Upper Hand. Superb.
Buy it and add to all those Sweeney series. You deserve it!
I must contest this view. 'Sweeney' - the most maligned - is a pretty good crime thriller. Okay, it's not Jack and George leaning on a 'snout' to get the 'blaggers' in the typical Sweeney way, however, as a sort-of political thriller, it holds together.
Regan is framed and off the force. Can he get back? Well, of course, but he also puts paid to a massive, American-led conspiracy. Diane Keen is great and, gosh, you do get to see a lot of her and the Oxo woman is a high class call girl! Goodness. Great period feel and I actually thought the ending was pretty sweet.
I was less convinced by Sweeney 2, which is generally felt superior because Troy Kennedy Martin wrote the script. Don't get me wrong, it is tremendous fun, but why these blaggers were shooting their own team members if they looked like getting caught was beyond me. Seventies blaggers were not famatics, they were professional criminals.
Nevertheless - great entertainment. Regan, drunk, trying to chat up the woman from the The Upper Hand. Superb.
Buy it and add to all those Sweeney series. You deserve it!
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By Bubba
Format:DVD
I've just watched Sweeney! on TV on what was admittedly a quiet night despite the plethora of channels these days - and if I sound like I was a tad reluctant it was because I remembered I'd already seen the movie years ago. What I didn't remember was just how good this film is. It's a cracker.
I was a fan of the TV series, from which the movie is a spin-off, originally back in the Seventies, so that may account for the onset of my amnesia - age taking its toll, alas. But the years have not blunted the action one jot.
If you like your heroes a bit dog-eared - by long hours on a hard job, boozing, smoking, trying to pull the occasional lady who crosses their path, prepared to give the bad guys a good smacking to get results, and above all, totally realistic, this is the stuff. Moreover, it does it so well, it deserves to be recognised as a classic. It broke new ground in UK TV/cinema, was much imitated but never bettered, and is waiting for a new audience to find, for whom the Seventies was before their time and sent up by the likes of Life on Mars, which references The Sweeney in just about every frame.
The plot's intrigue builds inexorably. When an informant's girlfriend apparently commits suicide, he asks Detective Inspector Regan (the truly superb John Thaw) of Scotland Yard's elite Flying Squad, to look into the matter as a favour. Initially sceptical, when the number of people who knew the girl suddenly ending up dead starts to grow, Regan begins to change his mind, and we're flung into a complex web of conspiracy with powerful and totally ruthless villains, some of them in very high places. Regan and his side-kick Sergeant Carter (Dennis Waterman) and high-class call girl and potential witness Bianca (a gorgeous Diane Keen) are all in mortal danger.... Read more ›
I was a fan of the TV series, from which the movie is a spin-off, originally back in the Seventies, so that may account for the onset of my amnesia - age taking its toll, alas. But the years have not blunted the action one jot.
If you like your heroes a bit dog-eared - by long hours on a hard job, boozing, smoking, trying to pull the occasional lady who crosses their path, prepared to give the bad guys a good smacking to get results, and above all, totally realistic, this is the stuff. Moreover, it does it so well, it deserves to be recognised as a classic. It broke new ground in UK TV/cinema, was much imitated but never bettered, and is waiting for a new audience to find, for whom the Seventies was before their time and sent up by the likes of Life on Mars, which references The Sweeney in just about every frame.
The plot's intrigue builds inexorably. When an informant's girlfriend apparently commits suicide, he asks Detective Inspector Regan (the truly superb John Thaw) of Scotland Yard's elite Flying Squad, to look into the matter as a favour. Initially sceptical, when the number of people who knew the girl suddenly ending up dead starts to grow, Regan begins to change his mind, and we're flung into a complex web of conspiracy with powerful and totally ruthless villains, some of them in very high places. Regan and his side-kick Sergeant Carter (Dennis Waterman) and high-class call girl and potential witness Bianca (a gorgeous Diane Keen) are all in mortal danger.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Sweeney films
Great series which spawned these two feature length films. Sweeney 1 is shown on terrestrial television regularly but I had never seen Sweeney 2 before. Read more
Published 16 days ago by CHRIS PEOVER
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good cop films
Took me back to the 60's/70's. Very good films and good value for money. John Thaw and Denis Waterman, who could ask for more.
Published 1 month ago by J. C. Tracvis
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sweeney classic
The original an BY FAR THE BEST SWEENEY. Forget the miserable efforts on the recent big screen with poor acting (Ray Winstone etc.) and dire script & plot. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Aerophile
5.0 out of 5 stars
70's glam
the 1970's fashion glam era is brought back to life in this double film offering
It's not z Cars, Its not hawaii five o and its definately not inspector morse
If you grew... Read more
It's not z Cars, Its not hawaii five o and its definately not inspector morse
If you grew... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Anthony K. Brooks
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good service
I already have these films on vhs and bought this dvd to update my collection they arrived on the date stated well done
Published 3 months ago by D. Hudson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buy me, you won't regret it!
This is the best way to buy these two films. Sit back, strap in and shut it! Nothing matches this 70's cop show thats true to the times and should't be missed.
Published 5 months ago by Mr. S. Sampayo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sweeny movie collection 1 and 2
Superb films if you like the series you will like these films all the action and must see viewing of this iconic 70s policeing before it got all soft, Recomended A+++++++++++++
Published 5 months ago by Mr. M. J. Cooling
5.0 out of 5 stars
Real Seventies Hard Men
What can I say?One of the best seventies series and these two feature films are true to the series and are great fun to watch - even if its just to see all the great old seventies... Read more
Published 5 months ago by ipag67
5.0 out of 5 stars
sweeney 1
terrific tv memories in my mind take me back in england streets long time ago still fresh ! need the next chapter
Published 6 months ago by papillon eric
4.0 out of 5 stars
Glad I happend on this
John Thaw as a 70s copper before he found fame as DCI Morse. I ask, what more could one ask for?
Published 6 months ago by subwo
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