Vertigo

There's nothing like a good old fashioned action flick about cops who push the envelope of legality by employing criminal methods to catch crooks; the dirtier the good guys get, the better, as a half dozen "Dirty Harry" blockbusters can attest. Which is why the new trailer for "The Sweeney" is so sweet. Just how rough and tumble are these cops?

Well, Ray Winstone is the star — and the title is a reference to the infamous demon barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd.

Yeah. That damn rough.

So here's a little background for those of you who were born in 1970's Britain: Back then, "The Sweeney" was a hit TV show about buddy cops who took the law into their own hands; it was kind of like "Starsky & Hutch," only instead of a cool car the main characters had beans on toast for breakfast.

Now, nearly 35 years after "The Sweeney"' went off the air, it's getting the big screen treatment, proving Hollywood execs aren't the only people obsessed with adapting old TV shows. But there's at least a bit of 21st century freshness in "The Sweeney:" Winstone's co-stars include British rapper Plan B (aka Ben Drew) and "Captain America's" Hayley Atwell.

Here's the trailer, courtesy of indieWire, which unfortunately doesn't feature subtitles for those who don't understand Winstonian English: