"The Sweeney" is a nickname for the London Metropolitan Police Force's "flying squads," tasked specifically with handling armed robberies or other violent crimes. The name comes from Cockney "rhyming slang" and derives from the way the name Sweeney Todd rhymes with "flying squad."
Veteran British movie and TV tough guy Ray Winstone plays Jack Regan, a detective inspector who commands the squad. He is old-fashioned in his methods and not at all hesitant to use violence in his attempts to take down violent criminals. Those kinds of tactics don't make him many friends in the 2010s, and Regan's squad becomes the target of an internal affairs investigation despite its success in capturing criminals.
A senseless murder in a jewel robbery captures the squad's attention, and Regan pieces together clues that point to an old opponent recently released from jail. He's brought in but the squad lacks any evidence to tie him to the crime and he has to be released. While still trying to build a case against him, the squad has to respond to a bank robbery by men armed with military weapons and that pursuit brings tragic results and Regan's suspension. Unwilling to back off as ordered, he finds himself further in trouble and thrown in jail, leaving other squad members to try to work for his release and track down the bank robbers.
The bigger movie budget offers cinematographer Simon Dennis and director Nick Love the chance to play with some interesting contrasts, such as putting the gritty, tough-as-nails flying squad in a sleek, ultramodern office. Running chase scenes through a museum and across a crowded square build good tension with their visuals and camera angles.
But the rest of The Sweeney wears its TV influence clearly; it's not much more than a longer and more violent episode of a show than could be shown on television. There's next to no character development for any of the cast. Regan's right-hand-man George Carter, played by British hip-hop star Ben Drew, does have to try to suss out his own internal conflicts over whether to support his boss and mentor or protect his growing family by holding the official line, but even that resolves without a lot of fuss. The rest of the cast of ciphers is far more completely wasted. Hayley Atwell as a female officer having an affair with Regan is probably supposed to offer some depth, but Winstone is 25 years her senior and looks every bit of that and more. The romance is never believable.
Winstone himself doesn't use any of his well-earned charisma to do much more than grump, grouse and slap people around. He's not helped by a script that gives us no reason to root for Regan since every single obstacle he has to overcome stems from his own screwups. From a borderline psychotic attack on a superior officer to leading his handgun-toting detectives in a disastrous pursuit of three men with automatic rifles, we can never really accept that Regan knows what he's doing or knows how to lead the team of which he is the supposed father/mentor figure.
All movies require some suspension of disbelief and police dramas are no different as they juice up a story with more action than most real police officers will see throughout an entire career. But director Love, who also wrote the screenplay, doesn't craft a story that holds its own internal logic, never mind match with reality. He sets Regan up as the Tough Guy Who Cuts Corners But Gets The Job Done but offers story point after story point that undermines that idea and shows Regan at the end as someone who's learned nothing from all of the problems he caused. Meaning that for all its visuals, clever patter and effort by the cast, The Sweeney can't overcome enough of its plot holes and script weaknesses to be anything more than a big ol' bag of pony 'n' trap.
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