Friday 15 April 2016

"The Sweeney: Paris" (Guardian 15/04/16)


The Sweeney: Paris **
Dir: Benjamin Rocher. With: Jean Reno, Alban Lenoir, Caterina Murino, Sabrina Ouazani. 92 mins. Cert: 15

Un peu cheeky, this. After Nick Love’s big-screen Sweeney rehash elicited lukewarm responses back in 2012, its producers stuck the script on the Eurostar and saw it remade as something called Anti-Gang. That film’s now been repackaged as what sounds like a franchise-expanding spin-off, yet its MO is near-identical: blokey – albeit newly subtitled – surveillance-van banter between burly womaniser Jean Reno and sidekick Alban Lenoir (as “Cartier”); much Saab-ad flash applied to careworn maverick cop business; thunderous rounds of ammo passing through paper-thin characterisations. No longer bound by Winstonian gravity, it’s the pacier watch, but these knuckles can only be dragged so far before tiredness sets in.

The Sweeney: Paris opens in selected cinemas today. 

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