I did enjoy the first film, but as an avid fan of the show I will say the show is better than both movies put together. There are many problems with Sweeney 2, but the cast, good moments of dialogue and decent direction do make it watchable. Personally I don't think it is as bad as people think it is, but it does have major problems and definitely inferior to the show and the first film. The first problem is that the film is dated, the location shooting is nice but the photography is not as skillful or as evocative and the picture quality is very grainy. Secondly, the plot is very muddled and disjointed and it does feel like an extended episode from the show, and does have issues of pacing, when it drags, it not only drags badly but really badly. I loved the concept, but there is a lot of time in the middle half when there are a lot of pointless and dragged out scenes. Thirdly, the violence, the show and first film do have a lot of violence but the violence here is quite extreme, I do remember the first time I saw this there was a death towards the end that I was really disturbed by. However, what makes the film watchable is some amusing dialogue, not a surprise really as one of the main reasons why I love the show and liked the first film was that the dialogue was quotable and iconic, the superb music and the performances and chemistry of John Thaw and Dennis Waterman, who are solid as rocks in their roles as Regan and Carter. The supporting performances are also pretty good, but Thaw and Waterman are definitely the best of the lot. The direction is also pretty decent, perhaps not as efficient as it could have been but it was solid enough. Overall, disappointing, but it wasn't bad. 6/10 Bethany Cox

In my review of the television series I mentioned that THE SWEENEY has its episodes split between " comedy " episodes and " violent " episodes and after seeing the two film versions of the show this theory certainly holds up . The first SWEENEY film was a gritty political thriller with a high body count while the second film features a lot of humerous moments like the big John appeal box , " Remember- rubber is recyclable " , " When I said you couldn`t organise a p*ss up at a brewary George I was wrong " and there`s a running gag involving driver Robert Soames . That`s not to say that this film should be classed as a black comedy , just that it contains darkly comic moments like the original series did .

As has been noted the plot which involves a quasi fascist bunch of bank robbers could have easily have been made as a one hour episode ( And the film seems to have the budget of a one hour television episode ) but at least - Unlike the film versions of LOST IN SPACE and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - this film resembles the television show it`s based upon

With 'Sweeney!' proving both a financial and critical triumph, the inevitable sequel - 'Sweeney 2' - appeared the following year. Troy Kennedy-Martin ( brother of the show's creator Ian ) wrote the script. His track record in movies includes 'The Italian Job' and 'Kelly's Heroes' ( both favourites of mine ). The director, Tom Clegg, was, like David Wickes before him, a graduate of the series, and also responsible for 'MacVicar' starring Roger Daltrey.

'They're back! Tougher than ever!' screamed the posters. Well, they got it half-right. Regan and Carter were certainly back, this time on the trail of a bunch of bank robbers who use gold-coloured Purdey shotguns and have a curious habit of leaving money behind in their getaway cars. The crooks are based in Malta, in a communal villa where their girlfriends/wives float about all day in bikinis. They are of the view that England is 'finished', which I suppose makes them Thatcherite, though the political aspects of the plot are not dwelt upon.

Ranald Graham's screenplay for 'Sweeney!' was both action-packed and tightly plotted, whereas 'Sweeney 2' resembles an episode of 'Life On Mars' on Prozac. It has some decent action sequences - the police car smashing through a window, for instance - but not nearly enough. Most of the time it is talk. Regan and Carter fly out to Malta at one point, but don't get far with their investigation, and you wonder why the sequence was included at all, other than to give the stars a free holiday. There's also a bomb disposal sequence in a hotel which seems to have been written in purely to extend the running time.

Anna Nygh ( 'Desiree' from John Sullivan's 'Citizen Smith' ) does an alluring striptease as Nazi-worshipping 'Shirley Hicks', and Diana Weston and Georgina Hale provide glamour, but there's little else in the movie of note. Particularly annoying is the waste of actors of the calibre of Nigel Hawthorne, Roddy Macmillan, and Denholm Eliott ( cast as Regan's ex-boss, currently holed up in Wormwood Scrubs on corruption charges ).

Other than the inclusion of the 'f' word, the script could have been done on television. The Flying Squad are augmented by familiar faces including John Flanagan, Derrick O'Connor, James Warrior, John Alkin and they go some way towards bringing the movie to life, but overall this is a hugely disappointing production. Unsurprisingly, there was no 'Sweeney 3'.

( UPDATE In his newly published book 'Shut It!' Pat Gilbert claims the crooks' decision to abandon Britain shows what a bad state it was in. Why would crooks leaving the country in droves be a bad thing? )