Sweeney 2 (1978)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Tom Clegg

Writers:

Troy Kennedy-Martin (writer)
Ian Kennedy Martin (TV series The Sweeney)

Release Date:

April 1978 (UK)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

They're back - tougher than ever!

Plot:

Second cinematic spin-off from the popular 70's police series. Regan & Carter head a Flying Squad investigation into a series of bank raids by a team of well-armed villains who are flying in from the continent. |

Plot Keywords:

Based On TV Series | Sergeant | Sequel | Independent Film

Cast

John Thaw	...	Det. Insp. Jack Regan
Dennis Waterman	...	Det. Sgt. George Carter
Denholm Elliott	...	Jupp
Ken Hutchison	...	Hill
Anna Gaël	...	Mrs. Hill (as Anna Gael)
Barry Stanton	...	Big John
John Flanagan	...	Willard
David Casey	...	Goodyear
Derrick O'Connor	...	Llewellyn
John Alkin	...	Det. Sgt. Tom Daniels
James Warrior	...	Det. Con. Jellyneck
Guy Standeven	...	Logan - Bank Manager
Brian Gwaspari	...	White
Frederick Treves	...	McKyle
Johnny Shannon	...	Harry - Villain

Also Known As:

Sweeney Two (UK)

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:16 (theatrical rating) | UK:18 (video rating) | UK:AA (original rating) | Iceland:16 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

20 Perham Road, Earl's Court, London, England, UK

Company:

Euston Films

Goofs:

Continuity: When Regan is talking to the telephone operator in the hotel where the bomb is being defused, one shot shows the mouthpiece of the operator's headset pointing correctly towards her mouth. However in the next shot from the opposite side, the mouthpiece is pointing in the wrong direction, away from her mouth.

Quotes:

[to relieve the boredom during a stakeout, Llewellyn is watching busty young women walk past]
Llewellyn: Oooh. Look at that. Shouldn't be allowed. Fancy showing out in weather like this. Look, there's another one. Why does her mum give her a raincoat?
Det. Insp. Jack Regan: Why don't you belt up?
Llewellyn: It's a combination of nerves and smoking too much - I get this hard-on like a milk-bottle.

Movie Connections:

References All the President's Men (1976)

Kipper ties and expendable Cortinas

A slightly rougher and (in the last 15 minutes or so) more violent & gory spin-off from the TV series but with no DCI Haskins. Instead we suddenly have some bloke who looks like Sir Humphrey off `Yes Minister' playing Regan's & Carter's boss. The plot is a bit disjointed in places. Basically it's about a gang of `armed blaggers' toting gold sawn-offs and alarming '70s hairdos who jet in from Malta every so often to turn over some London bank. But then halfway through, the focus suddenly switches to some French-speaking `geezer' from Beirut in a hotel disarming a bomb in his room. He has absolutely nothing to do with the armed blaggers, but we stay with him for a good 20 minutes as George Carter dresses up as room service, takes him a large Scotch and ends up helping him disarm the bomb while all the other coppers have an impromptu booze-up downstairs in the hotel bar. No explanation as to who he is, where the bomb came from and what he's doing there, except for later on when Regan tells Carter `by the way' that `the geezer with the bomb' was with the CIA. And that's it!!! We're left to fill in the many blanks ourselves as the plot goes back to the expat blaggers living it up on Malta and planning their next `job'. We learn that they steal the exact equivalent of $100,000 in every raid - no more and no less. But again, absolutely no explanation is given as to the rationale behind this. Then there's Denholm Elliot's crooked Detective Superintendent who gets `sent down' for corruption. Early on we're told that he was Regan's ex-boss and that the two had been working closely for years, but I don't recall ever seeing or even hearing of the character in the TV series (although I can't claim to have seen every episode and it's been some years since I saw the programme so maybe I've missed something). Like its parent TV series and similar shows of the era (such as `The Professionals'), Sweeney 2 sticks two fingers firmly up at the PC brigade, and that's still very refreshing to see in this day and age, when programme-makers seem to be obsessed with tokenism, `inclusiveness' and not `offending' anyone. Despite its shortcomings and plot vagaries, this is an enjoyable movie for those with fond memories of a golden age in British television and '70s nostalgics in general. A bit of a mixed bag to be sure, but worth a look.