S.W.A.T.

Happy New Year my online blog readers. With the start of another leap year, I had difficulty trying to decide what I was going to make the first month of the year to be a weekly review of. Then I decided that I would review films of an actor I have mentioned many times before and have not reviewed a few of his films, the great Samuel L Jackson. Let’s start this month off with a movie of his that I saw in the theaters, “S.W.A.T.,” released in 2003.

Roger Ebert started his review by saying, “Half an hour into watching "S.W.A.T.," I realized the movie offered pleasures that action movies hardly ever allow themselves anymore: 1. The characters had dialogue and occupied a real plot, which involved their motivations and personalities.”

2. The action scenes were more or less believable. The cops didn’t do anything that a real cop might not almost be able to do if he were in extremely good training.

Ebert said, “I started taking notes along these lines, and here are a few of my jottings: When a cop shoots at a robber in a hostage situation, the hostage is wounded. The chief punishes two hot shots with demotions, instead of pulling their badges and guns and kicking them off the force. When the bad guy steals a cop car, we expect a chase, but he backs up and crashes it within a block. When the chase leads down to the Los Angeles subway system, the cops approach a stopped train, board it, and look for their quarry. Astonishingly, there is not a fight scene atop a speeding train.” In a S.W.A.T. team training scene, the trainees are running toward a target while shooting, and somebody asks, “No rolls?” the veteran cop in charge replies: “They only roll in John Woo movies – not in real life.” That’s the point with “S.W.A.T.” Ebert said, “This isn't a John Woo movie, or "Bad Boys 2," or any of the other countless movies with wall-to-wall action and cardboard characters. It isn't exactly real life, either, and I have to admit some of the stunts and action scenes are a shade unlikely, but the movie's ambition is essentially to be the same kind of police movie they used to make before special effects upstaged human beings.”

The result is one of the best cop thrillers since “Training Day.” Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell act together, playing the famous roles of veteran cop and young impulsive cop. Michelle Rodriguez and James Todd Smith (better known as Ladies Love Cool James – LL Cool J), both effective actors, give depth to the S.W.A.T. team. Also, Oliver Martinez is the smirking playboy weapons dealer who offers a $100 million reward to anyone who frees him from custody.

The film starts with a hostage situation gone wrong. A S.W.A.T. team member, played by Brian Gamble, disobeys orders, enters a bank, and hurts a hostage. He and his partner Jim Street, played by Farrell, are offered demotions. Street accepts. His partner leaves the force. However, Street, a talented officer and a great one, is seen by the legendary veteran Hondo Harrelson, played by Jackson, and chosen for his selected top S.W.A.T. team.

Ebert credited, “One of the pleasures of the movie is the training sequence, where Jackson leads his team through physical and mental maneuvers. Many recent action movies have no training scenes because, frankly, you can't train to do their impossible stunts -- you need an animator to do them for you.”

A routine traffic bust leads to the unexpected arrest of Alex, played by Oliver Martinez, an internationally wanted criminal. Alex offers the $100 million reward on television, the cops think there will be a lot of escape geniuses hoping to collect the reward, and it’s up to Hondo and his team to safely escort the prisoner to a federal penitentiary.

As you might have guessed, it does not go as planned. Ebert said, “I'm not arguing that the last 45 minutes of the movie are, strictly speaking, likely or even plausible, but nothing violates the laws of physics, and you can kind of see how stuff like that might sort of happen, if you get my drift.”

“S.W.A.T.” is a well-made police thriller, that’s it. No Academy Awards. However, at a time when so many action films were mindless on the eyes, ears, and brain, it works as superior film work. The director, Clark Johnson, is a veteran of TV both as an actor and director, and gives a well-made film that trusts its story and actors. Ebert ended his review by saying, “What a pleasure, after a summer of movies that merely wanted to make my head explode.”

I know this was released during the summer when people saw a lot of movies, but I missed out on a lot because I wasn’t old enough to see them or I didn’t see the other movies that were part of a franchise. This one my sister and I saw with two of our cousins. I forget why, but I don’t think it was because I was saying I wanted to go, but I thought of going anyway. I enjoyed it and thought it was a good cop film, especially when they overplayed the S.W.A.T. theme repeatedly when they didn’t have any other songs for the soundtrack. This is currently streaming in AMC+, so if you have that, you can check it out there. I say check it out and judge for yourself how you think of it, but I enjoyed it. Granted, I haven’t seen it since I saw it in theaters, but I still remember enjoying it.

Look out next week when I talk about a movie that has been talked about a lot and has one line that is quoted a lot in “Samuel L. Jackson Month.”