Dir. Clark Johnson
S.W.A.T. is about a L.A. S.W.A.T. team formed to polish up L.A.P.D.s tarnished reputation. The show focuses on Jim Street (Colin Farrell) a disgraced S.W.A.T. officer who is busted off the team by paper-pushing upper management for not informing on his partner. He then works in the gun cage because he cant bear to leave of the S.W.A.T. unit, even if hes no longer part of the team. Hondo (Samuel L. Jackson) finds him when he is hired to form an elite S.W.A.T. team to stop the bad cop headlines. The team goes through training and bonding, then hits the streets. Its first assignment is transporting a (really good-looking) French crime king (Oliver Martinez) to a federal holding facility. The kingpin offers $100 million to anyone who gets him out of the situation. This is broadcast by the news stations to the entire world. Heavily-armed men come out of the woodwork shooting lots of weapons and killing lots of people.
The characters are great, but not fully fleshed out. My favorite is Hondo, whos got the best lines and the most humor. Street has the most screen time, but hes a little too vanilla for my tastes, even when references are made to his interestingly macho past. Then theres the time he does something head-poundingly stupid in the middle of a fight. I hate that. I think it has something to do with testosterone and bad action writing. Except for that single moment the action is great, with lots and lots of bullets flying, and competent people doing their jobs extremely well. There are plenty of really good parts in here that make up for the lack of characterization. The training, the interaction between the characters, and lets not forget the hormone factor. Were talking about some seriously good-looking people here, men and women both. (Okay, mostly men. I guess they figure the guys will come for the action, and wanted to give the dates something to like.) The woman on the team is tough -- and kind of scary -- without acting like a man. That always gets bonus points from me (its so hard to bring off.) S.W.A.T. has a lot of potential, and lives up to most of it. Since its beautifully set up for a sequel theyll probably focus more on the characters in the next one. I hope so.
I rate it: Full Price
Samuel L. Jackson as Sgt. Dan Hondo Harrelson
Colin Farrell as Jim Street
Michelle Rodriguez as Chris Sanchez
LL Cool J as David Deke Kay
Josh Charles as T.J. McCabe
Oliver Martinez as Alex Montel (the French guy)