My my. You could tell this was directed by a mate of Danny Dyer's. The film itself was so far removed from anything that would happen in the real world it was laughable.

Ray Winstone as Regan was basically Ray Winstone i.e. he went around calling people horrible names and punching or nutting them. The plot was paper thin and there were many examples of "how could they be so thick??!!" coming from my sofa.

Decision making by the characters was just plain ridiculous and then there were the continuity errors and/or just generally stupid mistakes. Regan is on the way to a bank robbery; it is the morning and the bank is open. Somehow he is able to drive along the Embankment in London at 60+mph and there is NO traffic. And of course people hid behind cars & furniture during shoot-outs and naturally were completely unharmed.

The only good things in it were Ben Drew (playing himself as usual) and Hayley Atwell (although she should have known better than to take this part). Even Damian Lewis obviously just needed to pay the Gas Bill, as he was utterly anonymous as Haskins.

Please avoid this utter piece of total horse manure. Watch an episode or two of the original TV series with Thaw & Waterman on ITV4. It will be a far better way to spend 2 hours.

Wow, how bad was this. How did this nonsense ever get funding.

You have a policeman that actually acts more like a criminal than anyone else, he is cruel, nasty, a bully and a murderer yet is somehow portrayed as the hero of the piece.

He wouldn't have lasted a minute and would have been arrested, shamed and put in prison. You cannot just drive a car into a crime scene, without identifying yourself clearly or actually reading people their rights. Anyone arrested by this ragtag bunch of thugs would have got off in 10 second and sued the police station for brutality.

The arrest of the chap at his farmhouse, for doing nothing wrong, was ridiculous, wrongful arrest, police harassment and brutality, totally unbelievable.

At the end I was so appalled by the actions of Regan/Carter I wanted them and his whole crew to be killed. I was routing for the criminals, which were more victims than any of the police were.

Oh and apparently if you don't like a colleague in the police, you just verbally abuse him and then try to strangle him, which is acceptable behaviour.

On top of this claptrap, you then have gun fights where no one hits anyone and apparently wood has the same strength as steel.

0/10

Really love the 1970s TV series with John Thaw (speaking as a huge fan of his) and Dennis Waterman, and there is a reason why it's iconic for the genre and of that decade.

Always try to judge any film on its own terms, trying not to compare with previous adaptations and how it fares with the source material. But it is very hard to do that, when something as special as the original 'The Sweeney' has a film version just under 25 years after the series ended that is not only inferior in every way and a disgrace to it but is a poorly done and pointless film as a standalone. The only resemblance to the series here is the title and the names of the three lead characters, without them 'The Sweeney' could easily have been mistaken for something else entirely when that's what it felt like.

There are some shots and photography and the scenery is atmospheric. Those are the only good things really in 'The Sweeney's' favour.

Ray Winstone tries his best and has charisma but he just isn't Regan...not in a million years and plays him too much like a thug. Am aware that Regan was violent and such in the series but not to this extreme amount. Ben Drew, aka Plan B, should stick to rapping and come nowhere near a film again because there is absolutely nothing engaging or natural about his acting.

It has been said that Regan and Carter's chemistry was crucial to the series' success. Absolutely agree, and it was a big part of its appeal too. The chemistry just isn't there here, Winstone and Drew seem that they dislike each other, and it is far too secondary to a romance that is bland, tedious, far from loving, even more chemistry-less and bordering on unintentionally creepy.

All the other actors are underused and give performances that sees a very messy mix of over-compensating and looking bored out of their skulls. Damian Lewis is far better than this. The characters are sketchy at best, while the direction is pedestrian and the script is far too crude and stilted.

Nothing compelling, let alone exciting, about the action, while the soundtrack intrudes too much and the pacing is leaden. Perhaps worst of all is a story that is confused to the point of incoherence and has very little energy and effort, much of it inert.

Overall, a criminally disappointing mess. 2/10 Bethany Cox