Reviewed By
Vaughan

Analysis
Loosely based on the 1975 'SWAT' TV show, this modern day, big screen conversion is helmed by director Clark Johnson who is perhaps better known for his direction of hard nosed TV police drama's such as 'The Shield' and ''The Wire', so his background and experience should bode well for this action packed cop flick.

I'm making a conscious decision to avoid direct comparisons between this movie and it's 70's source as I believe that the original show is meant only as a basis for this films premise rather than a template for the plot. The cast consist of a cool collection of actors combining Jackson's usual laid back style, Farrell's intenseness, LL's menacing calmness and Rodriguez's strong yet sexy screen persona all melding to ensure that the film is big on charisma and surprisingly low on the cheese scale. The story comes straight out of the pen of writer Ron Mita who is also credited with scribing the preposterous Tom Berenger movie 'Sniper 2', so one could be forgiven for thinking that SWAT's tale might also be a little lackluster and contain action segments just to spend the bulging budget. This is of course true of a lot of action films and isn't necessarily a big problem provided that a sensible story is wrapped around the parts that get the heart pounding and SWAT is a good example of this.

This is a Hollywood action film so it goes without saying that the action has to get increasingly more outrageous as the film goes on and as such the realism goes right out of the window. If you want to see gritty reality-style action then watch TV's 'COPS' show because despite the fact that the film is all about the professionalism of the LAPD SWAT team it actually makes them look like a bunch of incapable, trigger happy cowboys complete with gun fights in populated area's, shooting at a fully fueled plane and trampling around the sewer system without a care in the world. The other problem this film faces is a pacing issue and, although starting off in an all action bank heist, it takes a good hour to actually get past the point where the new SWAT team is assembled and trained and start the story proper. It's always an essential part of any film spending some time getting to know the characters, but an hour long build up is taking this golden rule just a little too far.

Having pointed out that this is far from being a documentary you can now forget I ever said it and carry on with the review. The reason for that is that the film is inexplicably entertaining far beyond it's birth right and despite it's short comings, it actually hangs together quite well. The story is interesting enough to keep you hooked even with the slow start and the characters gel together to form a compelling unit even if a little stereotyped.

Key Area	Rating (out of 5)	Comment
Action		Loads of ballistic based mayhem makes this a great choice for the adrenalin junky.
Tension		The tension that builds in the bank at the start of the film is great and has a real nervous edge to it. Other similar examples are scattered liberally through out the running time.
Violence/ Gore		The violence comes as part of the action scenes and basically involves bad guys and police officers getting shot although not in any kind of graphic way's.
Bare Flesh		LL Cool J shows of his six-pack in a seemingly gratuitous scene that should peak the interest of the female audience.
Plot		Slow to get the story started but once the ball is rolling it does a sound job of keeping you hooked.

Verdict OK don't shoot me when I say this, but this film wasn't half bad. Despite the venomous disagreement of my cinema going pal (who hated this film and thought it should have gone straight to DVD) and half the reviewing press, I firmly believe that action fans will get something out of this movie even if it's just a buzz from the outlandish action.

Movie Pictures (Click picture to enlarge)