S.W.A.T. (2003)
Action | Crime

Tagline: Even cops dial 911

Two wisecracking, battle-hardened veterans (Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell) team up with a pair of street-smart rookies (Michelle Rodriguez and LL Cool J) to form the most freewheeling - but effective - S.W.A.T. team ever. Their first assignment: transport an international drug kingpin into federal custody - after he's offered $100 million to anyone who will free him!

"A Solid Action Movie with a lot of Heart and Soul." -- Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER
"The Best Cop Film Since 'Training Day!'" -- Roger Ebert, EBERT & ROEPER
"S.W.A.T. is by the numbers, by the book, and, by the way, pretty good." -- Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

Television director/actor Clark Johnson makes an impressive feature-film debut with S.W.A.T. Inspired by the 1970s show of the same name, S.W.A.T. is set in modern day Los Angeles. Recently demoted officer Jim Street (Colin Farrell) gets a chance to redeem himself when aging veteran Hondo (Samuel L. Jackson) is put in control of a new team. Joining Jim are Deke Kay (LL Cool J), Michael Boxer (Brian Van Holt), T.J. McCabe (Josh Charles), and Chris Sanchez (Michelle Rodriguez), all outcasts in their own right. But after an intense training period, the team is ready to hit the streets. Their first big assignment involves one of the world's most dangerous criminals, Alex Montel (Olivier Martinez), who makes an on-camera declaration that he'll give $100 million to whoever breaks him out of jail. Pretty soon, everyone's trying to get a piece of the action, including Jim's former partner, Brian Gamble (Jeremy Renner), who uses his own S.W.A.T. team experience to plot the escape of a lifetime. It's up to Hondo and Jim to outsmart the bad guys and make sure that Alex is safely transported to a federal penitentiary. S.W.A.T. is an entertaining adventure made all the more engaging because of the way Johnson concerns himself equally with the quality of the film's drama and its action.

Storyline: Based off of a one time T.V. show, two Los Angeles S.W.A.T. officers Jim Street and Brian Gamble were sent in to foil an extremely violent bank robbery. Although they thwarted the robbery, they shot a hostage in the process. Street was suspended from S.W.A.T. while Gamble was fired altogether. After 6 months, a veteran S.W.A.T. officer, Daniel Harrelson or "Hondo", is told to assemble a S.W.A.T. team for his division. He chooses other S.W.A.T. officers as well as 3 rookies. However, after they pass the S.W.A.T. training, they receive a message that a French crime boss, known as Alex Montell is trying to escape from prison. This will not be easy to prevent, especially after Montell promises $100 Million to his rescuers. Written by John Wiggins

User Comment: shinymc_shine, australia • "S.W.A.T." is a loud, crowd-pleasing action movie, with good set pieces, which is helped greatly from the presence of Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell.

The movie comes off as a expensive pilot for a non-existent television show. The main plot deals with an international criminal arrested on a minor charge who must be transported to a major correctional facility. On the way he declares that he will pay $100,000,000 to the person that springs him from the protected custody of the s.w.a.t. team. This premise holds alot of promise and it certainly delivers. What is needed is more action and less character development.

Jackson and Farrell are both charismatic performers who bring this type of material up a notch. The rest of the actors are serviceable but you can't help but think that there is a large dose of political correctness injected into the casting of these characters. Nice in-jokes for fans of the t.v. shows "S.W.A.T." and "Homicide: Life On The Street".

Good theatrical directing debut from Clark Johnson who obviously has learnt alot about police officers and their actions (training and procedure) from working as an actor and later director on "Homicide" and not to mention directing the first episode of "The Shield" .

The central idea of anyone and everyone in America being tempted by the idea of earning $100,000,000 to save a criminal from police forces is a great one but the need to show the s.w.a.t. team interacting with each other outside of work is a waste of time. I understand that red herrings need to be sowed into the story to create a sense of mystery but a good 10 minutes could be cut from the movie to make it tighter and more exciting.

Summary: Cut Ten Minutes Of Character Development And Get Back To Me

[CSW] -2.6. D-Box 10/10.

--- JOYA ---

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