Customer Reviews

The Sweeney [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This should not have even been attempted - John Thaw & Dennis Waterman were AND are THE Sweeney. We paid money to see this in the cinema and the comments among the others present said it all - and that was about 10 minutes into the film. The fact somebody even thought this a 'good idea' is beyond belief. Won't wait for Sweeney 2... End of story.

This film does not work.... Which ever way you look at it it fails.
As a 'homage' to the tv series it fails miserably
As an updated/reimagining of the series it fails
As a stand alone thriller that simply uses the title of the old series it fails.

The script is cringingly awful as is some of the acting at times.
There is no plot, no coherent story, not even the slightest nod to any kind of authenticity
Piss poor dialogue, piss poor direction.
A complete waste of time energy and talent.

The Sweeney. John Thaw must be turning in his grave and Dennis Waterman must be reaching for his revolver. Two talented actors from a ground breaking original are followed up with this rubbish.Will someone in the know on the manor please get a couple of the boys to bury this where it will not be discovered There are two many adjectives I could use to descibe this poorly written,badly acted,pointless follow up.The thought of Ray Winstone having sex with the inevitable female colleague is depressing enougth! DON'T BUY IT .

This is nothing more than a good old gangster film that I doubt has any resemblence to the real 'Flying Squad' whatsoever. Car chases, fights and shootings, the usual make up of these type of films. The baddies get killed and the goodies walk away. John Thaw must be turning in his grave at Ray Winstone's mumbling portrayel of 'Reagan' and Denis Waterman must have wondered at the way his part was portrayed.

I was really looking forward to this film. I thought Ray Winstone would be good as Jack Regan. How disappointed I was. Why remake a film but do little to make it resemble the original? The producers would have been better off doing something completely new. OK, maybe for someone who has never seen the orignial Sweeney this may have been of interest, but I think this attempt was pants. Talking of pants. RW's delivery of the immortal words 'Get yer trousers on, your nicked!' John Thaw must be laughing his head off somewhere. I really like Ray Winstone but this was not his best I'm afraid.
I should think Patrick Mower (now of Emmerdale, not that I watch it)) must also be having a laugh. I was watching an episode of the tv series Special Branch (made by Euston Films in 1973/1974 before they made The Sweeney tv series) and was surprised to hear DI Haggerty (Mower) say 'Get yer trousers on, you're nicked! Incientally, if you like The Sweeney tv series I recommend Special Branch, the later series not the studio bound first attempt with Derren Nesbitt.

And this is supposed to take the place of John Thaw and Dennis Waterman, I don't think so. They tried to do it to Minder, and that bit the dust. Now they want to do it to the Sweeney, be ready to eat dust. Nothing will ever come near the Sweeney of yesteryear. I have just started going back through the original series, The old London, the Smoke, and Car-chasers. Wonderful place to be. Do yourself a favor, stay away from this one...

It's only got one star, as Amazon make you give something. If only Thaw and Waterman could come back.. How I wish...!

As a huge fan of The original Sweeney I knew I was going to be annoyed at this, but I tried to watch it and judge it on its own merits but I am sorry to say that from Winstones first line I just couldn't take him seriously, Ray is a cracking actor but why did he do this? he mumbled his way through this and just didn't look right, and as for plan b ,blimey!(Dennis Waterman must be either laughing or crying at his performance) I have seen him in a couple of things ,most notably "Harry Brown" where he was outstanding, so I don't think he is a bad actor, quite the contrary, but he was totally miscast, Danny Dyer should have been Carter, he would have done a good job, Dyer is a very versatile actor ,if you only know Dyer from certain films you may laugh at that statement but it's true ,of late he has been a bit typecast but the guy is much underrated and would have done a cracking job as Carter, he is the right age etc and would have bought a lot to the role, another name that would have done a good job was in this film as a supporting part ,Nick Nevern, he could also have done Carter very well too ,I thought he stole the scenes he was given in this film,especially the one on the pool table where he was outstanding and out acted Winstone I can't understand why he wasn't used more ,he maybe isn't the big name(yet) that apparently the American producers wanted, that denied Dyer the job, but is Plan B a big name in the US? I think Phil Daniels as Regan and Dyer or Nevern as Carter would have made this film a lot better, but what do I know? Phil Daniels is younger looking and in better shape than Ray Winstone and more believable as a bloke who could be having it away with Hayley Atwell, who I thought was very good ,by the way.

I didn't like Damian Lewis as Haskins, he seemed to be making some very strange faces and I thought Macintosh was miscast.

I didn't miss "The Scum" tributes,which any fan of the film will notice.

If I forget The original Sweeney and just judge this as a crime movie, I'd still say it wasn't great ,worth watching for the car chases and shoot out in London, and for Nevern and Atwell but just a run of the mill Crime movie.

Hope Nick Love who I am big fan of will go back to original movies, and bring back Danny Dyer ,and use Nevern more in his next film.

I can deal with the fact that this isn't really trying to be The Sweeney from the 70's. It's a re-imagining, and twist on it. Sure they use the same character names, and the beat is the same - but that's about it.

I mean, the first time you see the Sweeney sitting in a high-tech office each with their own Mac Computer, you know you're in a different world.

But I still can't find a way to like this one. I can even forgive the casting (George has absolutely no chemistry with Regan, and he appears to be 30 years his junior!)

What I cannot forgive is the formulaic plot. There's a crime, Regan bends the rules, Regan ends up in prison where he has to deal with the people he put there. he gets out.... blah blah blah. The whole plot resolution depends on the utterly ridiculous passport switch. It's just horrible. Oh - and add in lots of guns and shoot-outs, all very Sweeney as we all know......

This film is a wannabe Hollywood action picture, and it comes across as a cheap knock-off. Next time they should get Seagal to star and have done with it. Hopefully with a script that wasn't phoned in.

Bad.

I am a massive fan of the original "Sweeney" with John Thaw and Dennis Waterman who will and could never be replaced in those roles.
Ray Winstone is really an expert at playing Ray Winstone in anything he plays and thinks he is some sort of Hard case and talks in that Wesst Am!!!Bet365 in Play accent etc and is a fat over bloated and most over rated British Actor Ever!!!!
This film is so far fetched as to be unbelievable.

1. A massive shoot out in Trafalgar Square in broad daylight with hardly a soul about not even a pigeon,a bus or any police cars whatsoever and the villains are in masks with semi automatic machine guns firing at will and not a bullet hits anyone.

2.Ray Winstone who is way out of condition has man boobs and big beer gut is the love interest and is having an affair with his superiors wife who is stunningly attractive in a weird sex scene in his pants wreaking of beer,who in there right mind would find this fanciable.

3. The main villain has more or less a minor role.

4. Carter lives in a flash pad in Canary Wharf which are worth millions so how does he afford it on his wages as a Sergeant.

5.Regan ends up in Wormwood Scrubs at one point and nearly half the Inmates he has put in there all beat him up with Baseball Bats and other tools and not a prison warder is around in that situation.

6.Loads of Aerial Shots of Canary Wharf and nothing like the Flying Squad HQ in real life, seems more like the start of The Apprentice.

7. Since when did The Flying Squad use Baseball Bats.

Honestly you have too see this film just to see how Awfully Bad and far fetched it is and is a Total Insult to the Original Series which is and always will be a National Treasure.

Ray Winstone should stick to his West Ham Season Ticket and is a total joke as Jack Regan and Ben Drew is way out of his depth as George Carter.
What the Hell Damian Lewis and Steven Mackintosh were doing in this Disaster i will never know as they are both brilliant actors and should never have got involved in this load of total mess.
Whatever you do go and see this for Ray Winstone's truly terrible attempt at acting and compare him to the pure class of John Thaw who will never be replaced.

Nick Love adds another Turkey film to his already growing CV of Turkeys

PS: Tank Malling was another similar British Turkey and guess who starred in that disaster!!!!

Single handedly the WORST action movie ever made. That is being charitable by the way. The worst thing about the film apart from the script, directing and editing is BEN DREW a so called actor who most certainly cannot ACT!!!. Perhaps he was the directors boyfriend only thing I can think of, his performance is the worst I have ever seen, he makes danny dyer look brilliant!!!! this english actor apparently CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH he mumbles unintelligently using what I can only imagine is some form of CHAV caveman newspeak any scene he is involved in falls flat just by his presence in it.
Drew himself looks more like a gay street prostitute than a police officer in an elite unit and ray winston is sorely misused as a dull and dumb as dish water jack reagan there is absolutely no chemistry in the cast but in particular zero between carter (drew) and reagan (winston) killing the most important relationship in the film.
The script is cliched slow paced and unintelligible apparently armed police don't know how to reload there pistols or aim them for that matter, the climax puts one in mind of the keystone cops rather than HEAT a massive let down in fact.
The movie is just an amateurish joke from start to finish DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY.