Sweeney! (1977)

Yikes but there's some shocking acting in this film adaptation of the popular television series. It seems that one of Her Majesty's ministers - "Baker" (Ian Bannen) might be a little too close to the oil industry as a major announcement on pool pricing is due to be made in London. The Flying Squad's finest "Regan" (John Thaw) and sidekick "Carter" (Dennis Waterman) are soon embroiled, but as the body count starts to mount up the former is suspended from duty. Undeterred, he faces the wrath of not just his own bosses but also of some blokes who're marauding round the city with machine guns. His searching leads him to high-class hooker "Bianca" (Diane Keen) and all of this is going on whilst we the just sense that adviser "McQueen" (Barry Foster) is up to no good. Thaw does try, a bit too hard I reckon, but the rest of this is pretty sloppy stuff. Keen dreadfully over-acts, Foster seems to pick up an accent that vacillates wildly from scene to scene and Waterman doesn't really feature enough to make much difference to this pretty predictable cop drama where the rules are meant for someone else. Gritty? Possibly - but I just figured that in the end, they all pretty much deserved each other. Of it's time, I'd say - and that day has long gone.