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Best movie of this year hands down!

Nice effects though.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

As a recent fan of the series the movie came with the box set I purchased. Of course it is different to the series, Haskins being the main omission and the focus is definitely on John Thaw's excellent Jack Regan character. This feels different to the series, the violence level is upped, the stakes are raised and the action is more intense. Particularly one part when Thaw just manages to save a high class hooker and himself from being assassinated and they go on the run through the streets while shooting and mayhem ensues, including a graphic scene of a copper being shot in the head! I did find the violence level shocking but I liked it - I get the feeling they really went for it and the result was exiting. Its a great slice of 70s hard boiled cop action check it out.

People have often speculated about George's behaviour in the last scene of this film, and wondered why he reacted as he did. I watched this again recently and noticed that after McQueen breaks free of his arresting officers, as he runs onto the bridge he shouts 'Johnson' as if he is almost inviting the smiling assassin to take him out. Johnson and his mob duly oblige. It's almost as if he knew it was going to happen. It's possible also that they would have killed McQueen even had he not escaped, since the chap who stripped Lynda Bellingham at the start was also present, pretending to be a road sweeper. Why? Were the going to murder McQueen, or try and free him? Who knows.I've often found the end of this film confusing, and George's reaction is a surprise. Why would anyone be so upset about the death of someone as wicked and nasty as McQueen? Also, with reference to the aforementioned LB, surely even someone as ditsy as Janice Wyatt would have smelt a bit of a rat being coaxed into a hotel room and made to record specific references to Charles Baker and 'going to sleep' before being murdered by lethal injection. What was she told they needed that for? I think it's a bit far fetched to expect anyone to actually do this with no explanation, and none is never offered on screen. I agree with another posting however that the murder scene is surprisingly effective, and Janice certainly looks dead pretty quickly after being given a forced overdose. On the DVD Lynda Bellingham states that she was actually injected with distilled water, and had they caught a vein she might well have gone the same way as her character.

Detectives Regan & Carter investigate the suspected murder of a prostitute and find that there is major corruption, blackmail and murder bubbling under the surface.Sweeney! is a TV spin-off that further pushes the grit and grime that had been established in the hugely popular series. Boasting call girls, blood, automatic weapon carnage, more blood and lots of shouting, it does in short have most things fans of the series could want. It also serves as a interesting snap-shot of mid to late 70s London as various sequences operate in and around the old smoke. Yet in spite of its guts and gusto and nicely woven plot {incorporating the oil slant}, it ultimately sags too often and criminally under uses Dennis Waterman's Carter. This is really about John Thaw's Reagan. Fine for fans of the always excellent Thaw, but this was a dynamite duo, and somewhere along the way somebody made a poor decision to focus on one part of the team.The cast is filled out with notable British actors as the story unfolds. Barry Foster {Frenzy}, Ian Bannen {Too Late the Hero}, Colin Welland {Straw Dogs}, Brian Glover {Kes} and Diane Keen; who was a star of many a British TV production. It's pretty much one for fans only, because you get the feeling that newcomers, although sure to be impressed with its toughness, will wonder just what all the fuss was about back in the sweary Sweeney 70s. 6/10

but the rough English cops of The Flying Squad (which, oddly enough, gets Sweeney from the Cockney rhyme for Flying Squad, Sweeney Todd!). Detectives Jack Regan (John Thaw) and George Carter (John Waterman) are our main characters as Regan begins to investigate the "suicide" of a working girl as a favor for an underworld figure friend/informant. Naturally, he uncovers a high level conspiracy and becomes the next target. A theatrical spin-off of the popular THE SWEENEY television series, SWEENEY! is my first exposure to the characters and it is fantastic. Thaw is outstanding as the gruff detective and he and Waterman have a great rapport. The film is peppered with some great (and really violent for the period) action pieces and location filming. I also like the realistic portrayal of the relationship between cops and crooks.