Corporate Line: The tables are turned when the Los Angeles Police Department’s S.W.A.T. (Special Weapons and Tactics) unit must protect a dangerous criminal. A grizzled veteran SWAT officer (Jackson) is given a second chance to cobble together a new SWAT team to protect the high-profile baddie.
The Good: Samuel L. Jackson rocks. Colin Farrell gives one hell of a performance. Michelle Rodriquez doesn’t say much, but she does stand and look angry very convincingly. LL Cool J delivers perhaps the only interesting performance of his career. The bad guy, Oliver Martinez is a believable and you see the u-turn coming it’s not glaring. Funny thing is during one scene you say to yourself ‘come on, they aren’t stupid enough to do that – when they are delivering Martinez – and unbelievably they actually do the smart thing and not run the cliché gamut.
Also I liked that this film wasn’t full of gory blood and swearing that would run you out of the theater like Bad Boys 2 did. There is reality and then there is the cinema, Bad Boys bad language might have been closer to the real but S.W.A.T. was more entertaining and interesting.
The Bad: There are a few scenes that seemed to be out of place, Farrell exercising and once throwing up for whatever reason. It seemed like a piece that the editor accidentally missed. The camera work is fast yet sometimes too quick on the draw and cuts so close that you don’t get caught up in the action instead getting caught right in the gut of it and disoriented. I’m whining.
Frankly: No, S.W.A.T. won’t win any awards and it’s not going to be on your list for this year’s best film. The great thing is that it won’t piss you off about spending your hard earned money and make you wish you’d seen something else. S.W.A.T. is an action movie that delivers a rush that keeps pumping until it ends.
+ Charlie Craine
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