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S.W.A.T. - 8/8/03 - PG-13 - 111m
Samuel
L. Jackson - Sgt. Dan 'Hondo' Harrelson
Collin Farrell - Jim Street
L.L. Cool J - David 'Deke' Kay
Director: Clark Johnson
Written by: Ron Mita
Official
Website
JEF
This is going to be another one of those movies that falls into
the strange category, where I know it’s not a good movie, but I
liked it anyway.
Storyline: The movie focuses around the character Jim
Street (Colin Farrell). He was originally on the L.A.P.D. S.W.A.T. team
but due to a bad judgment call of his over eager partner, he gets demoted
from the SWAT team, and is working in the “gun cage”, (kinda
like one step above a janitor, is how they portrayed it). But now, in
comes Sgt. Dan “Hondo” Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson), who
has been brought back to lead a new SWAT team. He handpicks a few characters,
including Jim Street, and we’re shown some of the training that
the SWAT team members must endure. Then they get their first “mission”
to escort a “bad guy” from a holding cell, to a federal penitentiary.
The bad guy is Alex Montel (Olivier Martinez) who is some sort of international
criminal, a drug dealer, or terrorist, it doesn’t really matter,
he’s just the rich bad guy. Upon his capture, as the media coverage
covers his arrest, he makes a wild claim, that if anyone is able to free
him from jail, he will pay them a huge amount of money (10 million, or
100 million, whatever, a lot).
Then the movie is about the cat and mouse chase, as the new SWAT team
is expected to transfer this criminal, as every other thug, gangster,
and criminal in the area, thinks they can rescue him, and earn his huge
reward.
I have to say, I liked the premise of the storyline. How a really rich
guy, might be able to buy his freedom, by recruiting any other criminal
to mastermind his escape. I could someday see this happening. The only
obvious flaw to this theory though, is who’s going to trust a criminal
to pay-up upon completion of the job? Probably why it’s never been
done before. 
Anyway, the storyline is not really important here. It’s a thin
excuse to show a bunch of car chases, foot chases, gun fights, explosions,
etc… a typical action film in the style of “Die Hard”
with Bruce Willis.
Yes, The movie was based on the original TV series from 1975 by the same
name. I remember watching this show as a kid. When the music first started,
it immediately brought me back to when I wore Sears’ jeans, and
Chuck Taylor high-top knock-offs, we called Bo-Bo’s, and when I
was the remote control for my dad (back in the day when you had to get
up and turn the knob to change the channel). I won’t go into any
sort of comparison of characters from the original TV show, because frankly,
that’s the only thing I remember about the show is the music.
Acting? Yeah it was ok. Nothing special. Although I have to say that Colin
Farrell does a fantastic job of covering up his heavy Irish accent. Sam
Jackson plays his usual tough guy routine. LL Cool J, held his own too.
But none of the performances were anything special. The dialogue was typical,
each character tried to be tougher or more macho than the next guy or
gal in the case of Chris Sanchez (Michelle Rodriguez).
I went into this movie knowing it was just a shoot-em up. I didn’t
expect a whole lot of story, or acting. Perhaps, it’s because of
this, that I was able to enjoy the movie. Perhaps it is because I’ve
seen a series of bad movies, and was really hoping for a good one? Perhaps,
it was because I had been up since 5:30am, and saw the movie at 10:10pm,
and was suffering from lack of sleep? But all in all, it was entertaining
for me, and I enjoyed seeing some of the SWAT tactics, I wish there were
more of an inside look at a real SWAT training.
Jef
PS> I’m actually looking forward to the continuation of the 1970’s
TV shows making a comeback to the big screen. I guess Charlie’s
Angels started this trend? But I’m really looking forward to another
one of my favorite childhood TV shows… Starsky and Hutch. Ben Stiller
as Starsky, Owen Wilson as Hutch, and Snoop Dogg as Huggy Bear –
great job on casting if you ask me.
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