S.W.A.T. Review

Jackson plays Lieutenant Hondo, an 'old school' S.W.A.T. member who is brought back to form a crack elite team. Jim Street, Colin Farrell, is doing subservient duty in the gun cage, signing out weapons to his colleagues because he fouled up during a hostage situation. But Hondo spots something in Jim and gives him a chance to strut his stuff in front of the others chosen for the team. They include the only woman, Sanchez, Michelle Rodriguez, crack shot McCabe, Josh Charles, Deke, LL Cool J, and Boxer, Brian van Holt. Their skills are needed when international criminal and murderer Alex Montel, Olivier Martinez, is arrested and offers $100 million to anyone who can free him from prison. This rather empty action feast has maximum material damage and paper thin character and plot development. It's all rather silly and uninteresting as a result. It's a feature debut for director Clark Johnson who's worked as an actor himself and directed extensively for television. You'd think he would want to give his potentially very good actors more substance to work with. But this adaptation of a 1970's television series doesn't go anywhere very interesting from what I remember as a rather uninspired basis. But if it's mindless action you're after, head for S.W.A.T. Comments by David StrattonRoutine action film of no particular distinction. The stunts and computer generated effects replace character and motivation, and it's sad to see Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell wasted on such insipid and predictable characters.