S.W.A.T. (2003) Columbia/Action RT: 117 minutes Rated PG-13 (violence, language, sexual references) Director: Clark Johnson Screenplay: David Ayer and David McKenna Music: Elliot Goldenthal Cinematography: Gabriel Beristain Release date: August 8, 2003 (US) Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, Olivier Martinez, Jeremy Renner, Josh Charles, Brian Van Holt, Larry Poindexter, Reg E. Cathey, Ken Davitian, Page Kennedy, Jeff Wincott, Domenick Lombardozzi, James DuMont, Lucinda Jenney, Reed Diamond, Ashley Scott. Box Office: $116.9M (US)/$207.7M (World)
Rating: ***
The movie version of the 70s cop show S.W.A.T. is on a short list of TV-to-movie adaptations that don’t totally suck. The list includes The Untouchables, The Fugitive, Dragnet and 21 Jump Street. It’s actually well made and did pretty well at the box office. I really thought there would be a sequel at some point, but it never materialized. Last year, the series was rebooted. The new version, starring Shemar Moore (Criminal Minds) and Alex Russell (Chronicle), is good. My wife and I both enjoy it. Now that the first season has come to a close, I raided the archives and pulled out my DVD of the movie. I hadn’t watched it in nearly 15 years; I forgot how good a movie it is. It still holds up pretty well (give or take some outdated technology).
The movie opens with a bang with LAPD’s S.W.A.T. team responding to a bank robbery. Jim Street (Farrell, Phone Booth) and his hot-tempered partner/best friend Brian Gamble (Renner, Hawkeye from the Avengers movies) manage to get inside only to be ordered to stand down. Gamble disobeys the order and engages the robbers, an action that results in a hostage being shot. They’re both demoted. An angry Gamble quits the force. Street is sent to work in the gun cage after refusing to rat out his partner.
Six months later, Street is offered a chance to return to S.W.A.T. by Sgt. “Hondo” Harrelson (Jackson, Pulp Fiction) who’s been sent by the higher-ups to re-organize the team. Hondo’s other recruits are Chris Sanchez (Rodriguez, the Fast & Furious movies), Deacon “Deke” Kay (LL Cool J, Deep Blue Sea), TJ McCabe (Charles, Dead Poets Society) and Michael Boxer (Holt, House of Wax). The first part of S.W.A.T. deals with the new team training and learning to work together in order to pass a big test their mean C.O., Captain Fuller (Poindexter, American Ninja 2), hopes they fail. Of course, they pass with flying colors.
The team is immediately put to the test with the case of Alexander Montel (Martinez, Unfaithful), a French drug lord and international fugitive taken into custody after a routine traffic stop. After Hondo and his team thwart his escape attempt from a prison bus, Montel announces in front of TV cameras that he will pay $100 million to whoever can break him out of jail before he’s transferred to federal custody. The S.W.A.T. team is assigned the task of escorting Montel to federal prison. The bad guys come out of the woodwork to take him up on his offer.
Something occurred to me as I watched S.W.A.T. the other night. It came out the same summer as Bad Boys 2 in which Will Smith and Martin Lawrence reprise their roles from the hit 1995 original. BB2 is directed by Michael Bay which pretty tells you everything you need to know about it. It’s loud, violent and completely out of control. Realism does NOT factor into it in any way, shape or form. You can’t believe a millisecond of it. That’s not true of S.W.A.T. It has plenty of action yet somehow it all feels plausible. Well, most of it anyway. The cops don’t do things real life cops couldn’t do. They’re bad asses without being superhuman. A few stunts are unlikely, but they never violate the laws of gravity or physics. Instead of “Yeah, right!”, you say “Okay, maybe.”
What I like most about S.W.A.T. is that it’s a throwback to kind of cop movie that studios used to make. It has a gritty feel to it. The action scenes are well done. It has a few funny moments. It also tells a compelling story. The cast does a great job in their roles. We’re not talking Oscar-worthy performances here, but each actor seems comfortable in his or her role. Clark Johnson, a veteran TV director, does a very skillful job with the material. S.W.A.T. moves along at a nice clip. It’s NOT a mindless noisefest. It doesn’t assault the senses. It gets by on solid storytelling. Not many films put their trust in story anymore. It’s nice when one of them does. I’m not saying that S.W.A.T. redefines the genre, but it does provide two hours of solid entertainment. Hey, I’ll take it!
