FORMAT: DVD (REWATCH)
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
(As posted on March 2nd, 2023)
C. Thomas Howell stars as a cop on the edge. After accidentally killing a perp in the line of duty, he is recruited by Ed Lauter to join an underground vigilante society called “Justice Inc.” that is dedicated to blowing away drug dealers, killers, and other assorted criminals that slipped through the cracks of the system. Naturally, Ed is just using him to do his dirty work, and it’s up to C. to kick some A.
The Sweeper is a tad uneven in spots, but when it finds its groove, it really works. Some of the action beats are kind of fun (the car chase featuring numerous exploding oxygen tanks is gloriously over the top), the stunt work is strong (there’s an exciting rooftop chase), and there are moments of legitimately WTF energy and/or just plain weird asides (like when a woman offers to give Howell a blowjob if he can recite the Honey Comb Hideout cereal jingle). That said, it sometimes takes a while to get to the good stuff.
At an even hundred minutes, The Sweeper is a good fifteen minutes or so too long. For one, it takes an inordinate amount of time to get the ball rolling. The opening sequence involving Howell’s supercop dad, played by Jeff Fahey, eats up a lot of precious screen time. I’m all for watching Fahey in action, but his scenes weren’t exactly necessary. We also get more than the requisite number of dreams and flashbacks that help further pad out the running time. I mean Howell doesn’t even join the vigilante group until the movie’s already halfway over! Also, I had a little trouble swallowing Howell as a tough cop as he just isn’t convincing with his scraggily long hair, House of Pain hat, and cheesy goatee.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I admire The Sweeper’s moxie. It’s the kind of movie where if it’s going to throw a guy out of a two-story window, it’s going to throw them out of a two-story window while they’re on fire. The finale, which includes cars being thrown through the air like Matchbox toys, exploding tanker trucks, and biplanes landing on the freeway is fucking ridiculous… which is just another way of saying, “Pretty damned entertaining.”
In short, The Sweeper is a Howell-ing good time.
No comments:
Post a Comment