SWAT

Reviewed by Rich Drees

     While it seems that the big cycle of television series-to-film remakes of the `90s has died out, there seems to be enough life in the concept to make SWAT one of the more enjoyable ventures into fairly traveled territory in recent memory.

     After a civilian is wounded by police gunfire during an armed robbery, SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) officer Jim Street (Colin Farrell) is booted off of the squad and busted down to a job in the Los Angeles Police Department’s armory. However he’s recruited back onto the team by Sgt. Dan ‘Hondo’ Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson), an old school SWAT commander who has been given the mandate to clean up the team’s image in the press. After the requisite training exercises and team bonding sequences, the group goes into action transporting a dangerous drug lord Olivier Martinez (Alex Montel) who has announced he would pay $1 million dollars to whomever could release hi. The SWAT team soon finds itself running a gauntlet of criminals and gang members all eager to seize Martinez’s reward.

     The first half of SWAT is fairly predictable and rife with cliches. There’s the main character who has been busted down to a menial job striving to regain his old post. There are the expected clashes between the cops who do the job and their desk bound superiors. The hoary old line “So-and-so’s a good cop!” is thrown out within the film’s first reel, but at least its out of the way.

     It’s only in the second half of the film, once the team embarks on their mission to transport Martinez does the movie truly heat up. The action sequences segue nicely from one to another building up a momentum that makes it easier to forgive the flaws of the film’s first half.

     One annoying point with this movie is that it doesn’t know if it wants to be an actual remake of the original series or if the series existed in the movie’s cinematic world. We are given contradicting evidence throughout. Over a celebratory drink the team breaks out in a chorus of the show’s theme song. Another scene shows a member of the team watching the show in his living room. Yet several of the film’s characters have the same names as characters from the TV show but no one ever seems to comment on that coincidence. It’s probably best not to dwell on it too much and just sit back and enjoy the ride.