When I was a child my mum and dad gave me a 20 inch black and white television in my bedroom. I was very lucky to have such a TV in the 70’s, which today is very common for kids. I’m sure I should have been sleeping but in the days before the watershed I was watching The Sweeney. John Thaw and Dennis Waterman as tough cops from the Flying Squad. The opening sequence and music are a strong childhood memory along with blaggers with stockings on their heads driving Jaguars and hard drinking cops in their Fords.
However, as an adult its the language of the series which is more engrained into my memory and that of British culture with lines such as ‘put your trousers on, you’re nicked’ and ‘We’re the Sweeney, son, and we’ve haven’t had any dinner yet, so unless you want a kickin’…”
The period of time since the series finished in 1978 has seen Police shows like The Bill captured a more realistic portrayal of Police life but it wasn’t about it being real, it was about it being hard, dangerous and rough. It wasn’t until Life on Mars came along that the world of the Sweeny was brought back to life. It was a very different show but the character of Gene Hunt, a cop that drank hard and will hits first and asked questions later was very much the same.
Movies set in London are always fun to watch. The city is very photogenic and should be used a lot more than it is. So many films are set in New York or LA it makes a change to see London shot so well in the 2012 movie of The Sweeney with Ray Winstone playing Regan and Ben Drew as Carter. It was a little distracting to watch the movie at West India Quay as the aerial shots showed the Cinema I was actually sitting in. This has happened to me before while watching 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks later, which were shot in the same area. It can be fun though; I once made a phone call from a payphone at Liverpool Street station and then went to see Mission Impossible. During the film Tom Cruise made a phone call from the payphone I’d just used. I also like it when I see gunfights or zombies near my home. There is an extra sense of reality to the most unreal of situations.
The film was directed by Nick Love and by the numbers, by which I mean it didn’t stretch itself too hard, it just told the story. It seemed to lack any style and at times it looked like a commercial for the new Ford Focus ST and Jaguar, which got some great screen time. The script lacked any depth and failed to stretch itself and was fairly obvious and plodding. However, Winstone was everything you wanted him to be which really means he was himself playing Regan. The serious tough guy East Ender with a few C and F words thrown in made him compelling to watch with exception to his half naked lovemaking scene that just got more laughs than anything else. I also enjoyed Ben Drew’s first foray into acting with a performance that was really convincing. The connections to the original TV series I watched as a kid and this movie are very lose but that didn’t make it a bad film. The gunfights and car chases were amazing and fairly long but I found myself waiting for the next one to come along.
The character driven story was replaced with a narrative that just linked each action sequence and patted the audience on the head. I never expected to come out of the cinema with my life changed but I felt the characters needed time to develop enough for me to care about them. I didn’t care about them and that’s the reason it was a bad film…
Moli
