Can the French take a good old English Classic and reboot it to fit with today’s modern times. Well, that’s what Director Benjamin Rocher has done with The Sweeney: Paris, a 70’s classic, filling it full of action and bravado with an end result that will satisfy any hardcore action fan.
With The Sweeney: Paris, Familiar face, Jean Reno takes on the lead as Serge Buren, a rogue undercover cop who heads up a team of over confident and unconventional police officers including Margaux (Caterina Murino), Cartier (Alban Lenoir), Ricci (Stefi Celma), Manu (Oumar Diaw), Genoves (Sebastian Lalanne) and Boulez (Jean-Toussaint) all who have no regard for authority or sticking by the book. Brutality is the key to this team and they don’t care. They like to do things their way and to be fair they get results with a few mishaps along the way.
Like most films of this genre, the emphasis is very much centred around the action, the chase’s and the fight sequences leaving the plot and the storyline on shaky ground, it’s so thin it’s almost transparent. The rogue team is commissioned with an investigation into a group of criminals targeting banks, well one in particular and unearth a crime ring that they proceed to take down but with no hard evidence to back up the haul. Safe to say the ring leader is released and Buren and his team are taken off the case which sees’s Buren subsequently thrown in jail.
Of course, there is a love interest; Buren is having an affair with Margaux, who just also happens to be married to the boss. However, when she is killed by the ringleader of the gang all hell breaks loose. Buren is released from jail and goes on a personal emotional vendetta with his team to avenge Margaux’s death.
The positive side to this film is the humour, although what classes as humour with the French may just fly over the heads of a British audience. The fact that they emphasise Cartier’s wife dying for a smoke while heavily pregnant is one good example. The rest of the humour comes in the form of silly one liner’s which you try hard not to laugh at but can’t help yourself.
The Sweeney: Paris comes to UK Cinemas and exclusively to Sky Store on April 15.