Seeing the Nick Love big screen version of THE SWEENEY I was struck as to how cynical the marketing was . It could be any high octane thriller set around a bunch of bank robbers in London with a crime squad led by a rough diamond cop trying to bring the crooks to book . In other words it's simply called THE SWEENEY because it's got a ready made market for people who fondly remember the original TV show . This is pre-dated by this big screen version of the television show of THE FUGITIVE which features Harrison Ford playing a character called Dr Richard Kimble being pursued by a cop called Gerard in a film that is nothing more than a cynical exercise in trying to cash in on a half remembered TV show from yesteryear . That is not to say it's a bad film as such but anyone expecting anything along the lines of the TV original won't recognise this film as sharing anything in common with the David Janssen series
As it stands if you like loud , brash , action packed muliplex entertainment then you'll certainly enjoy this movie . The downside is that you have to take the rough with the smooth and this comes in the form of plot contrivance . Interestingly the original court case is skated over and the audience never given a reason why Kimble is found guilty of the murder of his wife . Of course sharing the name of the TV series THE FUGITIVE and a character played by Harrison Ford in 1993 the audience know Kimble must be innocent but even so the evidence must have been rather damning . Being a contrived plot means that in order for the story to progress more and more ludicrous things involving good luck/bad luck has to happen which strains credibility when you stop to think about anything . The shark is well and truly jumped relatively early in the film where Kimble takes a dive of a dam falling several hundred feet in to a waterfall which must contain several thousand tons of water and surviving
This sequence ties in with the protagonist's nemesis US Marshall Samuel Gerard who has the almostsupernatural ability to be one step ahead of the other characters . Kimble disappears in a blocked off tunnel ? He's obviously escaped down a drain . He jumps off the top of a dam ? He's obviously survived the fall . He looks through some garbage and concludes Kimble is using a false ID One almost hopes Gerard does something credible such as throw his hands up and say " Hey guys the trail has gone cold " but I guess that would mean less tension and excitement in a film that merely exists to wretch up tension and excitement to a multiplex audience . A fact reflected in its massive box office takings
As it stands if you like loud , brash , action packed muliplex entertainment then you'll certainly enjoy this movie . The downside is that you have to take the rough with the smooth and this comes in the form of plot contrivance . Interestingly the original court case is skated over and the audience never given a reason why Kimble is found guilty of the murder of his wife . Of course sharing the name of the TV series THE FUGITIVE and a character played by Harrison Ford in 1993 the audience know Kimble must be innocent but even so the evidence must have been rather damning . Being a contrived plot means that in order for the story to progress more and more ludicrous things involving good luck/bad luck has to happen which strains credibility when you stop to think about anything . The shark is well and truly jumped relatively early in the film where Kimble takes a dive of a dam falling several hundred feet in to a waterfall which must contain several thousand tons of water and surviving
This sequence ties in with the protagonist's nemesis US Marshall Samuel Gerard who has the almostsupernatural ability to be one step ahead of the other characters . Kimble disappears in a blocked off tunnel ? He's obviously escaped down a drain . He jumps off the top of a dam ? He's obviously survived the fall . He looks through some garbage and concludes Kimble is using a false ID One almost hopes Gerard does something credible such as throw his hands up and say " Hey guys the trail has gone cold " but I guess that would mean less tension and excitement in a film that merely exists to wretch up tension and excitement to a multiplex audience . A fact reflected in its massive box office takings