Movie Review

S.W.A.T.

Like any other moviegoer this summer, I was looking forward to a fun route with S.W.A.T.; it had the obvious Speed aura to it, but with a nice little cast and a pretty cool teaser trailer, I was ready.

Despite an introduction that promises that very thing, S.W.A.T. disappoints soon thereafter. What could?ve been a high adrenaline roller-coaster ride is instead a very tame and run of the mill cop movie with a script involving empty characters and a bag full of corny one-liners.
When the marketing reps at Sony tagged on "From the Producers of Fast and the Furious and XXX" to its trailers, they were being pretty accurate. The story of S.W.A.T. is very thin and very Hollywood; it allows a cheese-ball script to be at full display with rock tunes blaring when all the action is supposed to be exciting the audience. Though there is a demographic out there that doesn?t mind this approach at moviemaking, for me it takes the effect out of the movie.

A movie like this can be very entertaining, but it heavily relies on the talent of the director (let alone the script); here, we have Clark Johnson whose only history is a list of television series including The Wire and The Shield, and it shows. With a lot of material on the air aimed to keep short attention spans busy, that is Johnson?s ambition here, but not in the right angle.

Rather than giving the production an intense beat for the audience to walk on or wait in anticipation in, the adrenaline comes from the rock tunes. If you?ve seen Triple X, you have a pretty good idea what this method is like; and whether or not that is accommodating to you will matter on personal taste ? for me, it drowns the experience.

The film surrounds a group of LAPD S.W.A.T. members pumping up for any events that need their presence. The film opens with a robbery that proves my start-with-a-bang theory about successful movies; when a unit accidentally fires upon a bystander, the group is taken off the team until further notice. This leads to training sequences involving the clan, which includes Samuel L. Jackson as Lt. Dan ?Hondo? Harrelson, Colin Farrell as Jim Street, Michelle Rodriguez as Chris Sanchez, and LL Cool J as David ?Deke? Kay.

When a kingpin (Alex Montel - Olivier Martinez) walks into the picture and is imprisoned, the process of his transportation goes a little awry, forcing the S.W.A.T. team to take matters into their own hands. What doesn?t help in their favor is that Alex has publicly offered $100 million to anyone who frees him.

There?s a list of movies S.W.A.T. reminded me of, but marketing wise, Vertical Limit is a pretty dead-on example. With Limit?s trailers, Sony managed to make the film look like a nonstop thrill ride when the film itself barely had a pulse and even revealed most of the exciting bits in the clips.

With S.W.A.T., viewing the teaser trailer gives more adrenaline than the actual ride. The marketing folks need props and if awards could be given, the studio earns one for making the teaser represent an entirely different movie; there is a little stimulation throughout the flick?s duration, but not a lot.

S.W.A.T. obviously wants to be another Speed in relation, but screenwriters David Ayer and Jim McKena don?t know how to make the maneuver. They fortunately were in luck of the cast that signed on, but the roles they?ve created do nothing close to the justice of what Speed accomplished, nor even making way for a moderately entertaining trip. The characters are about as well established as in Furious and Triple X, with our involvement simply relying on how much we like the actors' presence.

The script doesn?t help much in that division, though, as the actors are handed dialogue and actions that are occasionally meaningless (more so dialogue) and often times cheesy. A brief scene near the beginning involving Farrell and his girlfriend in their apartment discussing their failed relationship does absolutely nothing to the story. I almost wished I attended a test screening, for I could at least try to get the filmmakers to remove that bit from the film via comments on the exit poll.

What also brings the show down to mediocre extents is the villain. Martinez is given little to work off of, and after watching him in Unfaithful opposite Diane Lane, I can possibly imagine the man having a talent; here, he doesn?t get to showcase it. The role is heavily stereotyped and the usual character we tend to expect for a brainless good guy, bad guy movie; there is no reason to fear him other than for the switchblade knife that he carries around. Unlike Dennis Hopper in Speed, Martinez is not an intriguing character to watch nor is he memorable ? he?s simply a pawn in a formula.

One sequence midway through where Martinez? persona suddenly flips open his knife forced someone in the audience to over-react with a loud anticipating scream, forcing the crowd to give in to a round of laughter. I realized that was the only spot throughout S.W.A.T. where I laughed, and given the so-many attempts at jokes, it?s sad.

As if S.W.A.T. didn?t have enough problems already, its tame PG-13 rating restricts some of the distance it can go; with this cast (and especially the way Colin Farrell apparently talks in real life) do you really think four letter words would be avoidable? Well, they are here, but it feels forced as if the characters are living in a Disneyland world. Language isn?t always mandatory, but given the situations the characters find themselves in, that component is craved for both humor and tone.

The flick held potential to be a fun roller-coaster ride through the procedural events of S.W.A.T. crew, but the screenwriters waste too much time in characters just talking to each other, attempting for easy chuckles through their banter. Disappointingly enough, there is not that much action throughout its 110-minute duration; a lot of it is training through scenarios that could be gripping given the right script and director, but with this execution the results are uneventful.

I was looking forward to seeing S.W.A.T. and was actually contemplating whether or not to wait until opening night to see it at the Hollywood Chinese theater. Now having seen it early, I?m glad I went on a free ticket ? it would be the first movie at that theater that I didn?t like, and it put away my hesitation that I?d need a good crowd for this (at the Chinese).

S.W.A.T. doesn?t necessarily have scenes that demand an audience, mostly because there isn?t that much action and the bits it does deliver aren?t that stimulating. The opening is about as good as it ever gets, and then shoves its big promise down the drain. In a way, there?s a reason this film is being released in August (quality wise), and though film fans have been commenting that S.W.A.T. is one of the only non-sequel action flicks this summer offering something new, it essentially offers nothing new.

The film is a formulaic and dull cop movie that we've all seen before, yet will breathe in its box office business opening weekend due to its cast and trailer promises; after that point, I?m not sure how far this project is going. For an end of the summer release I guess I should?ve known better; but with the potential that could?ve been had, it is just simply disappointing.

Lee's Grade: C

A	0.4%
B	30.0%
C	61.7%
D	8.0%
F	0.0%