Film review: The Sweeney (15)

Published on 09/09/2012 00:18

Director: Nick Love

Running time: 122 minutes

* * *

SHUT it! That was the terse, muscular essence of Thames TV’s The Sweeney, along with Cortinas and casual sexism.

Which 
begs the question: how could anyone update the TV series for 2012 when so many of the show’s strengths are rooted in the 1970s?

Writer-director Nick Love’s solution is to retain the characters of maverick detective Regan (Ray Winstone), his sidekick Carter (Ben Drew) and his long-suffering boss (Damian Lewis). But apart from working in one of 
the best-loved lines – “Get your trousers on, you’re nicked” – this is not really 
The Sweeney, more a re-badged generic policier.

And while the original TV series is remembered fondly for confronting the rough, corrupt side of the police in the 1970s, the new Sweeney is just plain rough when it comes to basic detective work. “Turn in your gun and your badge,” 
instructs Regan’s superior, 
apparently unaware that in the UK the police carry warrant cards. I also enjoyed the suggestion that senior officers cart around gold bars in their side pockets, as conversation pieces.

Still, Winstone is very good at playing too old for this stuff – and very game too, given the number of scenes that strip him down to his underwear. However, Ben Drew, aka music artist Plan B, is no-one’s idea of Carter unless you’ve had a weird cheese dream about 
rappers on Slim Fast. Also in the mix is Hayley Atwell, cast as a foxy but tough rebuttal 
to the old series’ dinosaur 
attitude to “birds”.

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. «

On general release from Wednesday