S.W.A.T. (2003, DVD)

I first saw a preview for S.W.A.T. when I went to see The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. At that time, I thought I didn t want to see S.W.A.T. Then I saw the preview again and saw ads on television for the movie. Then I got to thinking that it might be all right to see, but I wasn t going to make a special effort to see it. I had the opportunity to go see it, so I decided to go.

During the final preview, the sound went out. It was not back on when the movie started. We had to sit there and watch about ten minutes of the movie with no sound before they got it fixed. They didn t start the movie over. So I m not sure of a few things that happened during the time since I couldn t hear what was being said.

There was a hostage situation inside a bank. I think there had been a robbery. A S.W.A.T. team was sent in. Something went wrong and one of the S.W.A.T. officers shot a hostage when shooting the suspect. From what I could piece together once the sound was fixed, Brain, the officer who did the shooting, ignored orders when he shot the suspect. Jim Street, Brian s partner, was also in trouble over the shooting. Captain Fuller wanted Brian and Jim gone. They were sent to the gun cage. Brian didn t like that and was ready to quit. He and Jim got into an argument before Brian left.

Six months later, Jim was still working in the gun cage. Brian had left the force completly. Sergeant Harrelson, a leader of a S.W.A.T. team returned to the L.A.P.D. from another town. Everyone called him Hondo. He and Captain Fuller didn t get along for some reason. Hondo was making a new S.W.A.T. team, but Fuller had to approve of the members. Hondo wanted Jim on his team, but Fuller didn t want Jim back on a S.W.A.T. team. Hondo got Fuller to change his mind somehow. The team went through training and then started actually working as a S.W.A.T. team. They came up with some unique solutions at times.

There were arrest warrants from several different countries for Alex Montel. He came into town to surprise his uncle for his birthday. Alex was then picked up for a minor violation. He had fake identification, but his true identity was discovered. Alex kept trying to find a way to get away. He made a statement when the media was around that he would pay anyone who could get him out 100 million dollars. Hondo s team had to deal with Alex more than once.

CAST

Samuel L. Jackson - Sergeant Dan Hondo Harrelson
Colin Farrell - Jim Street
Michelle Rodriguez - Chris Sanchez
LL Cool J - David Kay Deke
Josh Charles - T.J. McCabe
Jeremy Renner - Brian Gamble
Brian Von Holt - Michael Boxer
Olivier Martinez - Alex Montel
Reg E. Cathey - Lt. Greg Velasquez
Larry Poindexter - Captain Fuller

Clark Johnson - Director

S.W.A.T. was released in August of 2003. The movie was about two hours long and rated PG-13. There was some swearing in the movie, but it wasn t that bad. This was not a movie that children of any age should see. I saw several people taking very young children into this movie. Children should not be seeing this movie. I think the movie was based on a television series, but I m not sure since I ve never seen that show.

S.W.A.T. was an action movie. It started off with action and ended the same way. There was a lot of shooting and violence crammed into the movie. Several characters were shot, and the shootings were shown as they happened. Blood was shown more than once. I have seen some movies that were more violent, like Bad Boys II, but this was still quite violent. It was probably too violent for some people. There was too much violence in the movie for children to see it. The movie was fast paced overall, but there were a few scenes when it seemed to drag a little.

There was loud music playing several times during S.W.A.T. There was some music that was just instrumental that seemed to turn up fairly often. There were some other songs that turned up, but I didn t recognize any of them. They were entirely too loud and just sounded like nosie. A few times in the movie, especially at the beginning, the scenes were very shaky like the camera was jumping up and down when filming. That really annoyed me because the picture wasn t clear and it was hard to tell what was going on at times. That seemed to get a little better later in the movie. There were some grainy shots included at different times as well. Throughout the whole movie, the camera angle kept jumping around. It was constantly jumping around and at times it changed so quick I couldn t even tell what was just shown. That was very annoying. The way the scenes jumped around and the jerky camera work reminded me of similar problems in Bad Boys II. I even thought that the director must have studied at the Michael Bay school of directing. I ve never heard of Clark Johnson before, but I really wonder if he didn t work with Michael Bay at some point in time.

There were some things that I remember seeing in different previews for S.W.A.T. that didn t turn up in the movie. I ve seen that happen with other movies as well. There was something that was in several previews that really ended up being a bit of a spoiler. In many previews I ve seen for the movie, a line that Hondo said later in the movie was played. The line itself wasn t a spoiler, but after seeing something from the beginning of the movie, it was very clear to me what was going to happen. I was right too.

There was very little character development in S.W.A.T. The movie was focused on action and character development got sacrificed. Jim was the main character and developed more than any others, but he still didn t have much development. There was only a tiny little snippet of his life outside of the force shown when his girlfriend moved out. Other than that one scene, everything related to him revolved around his job. The other characters weren t developed. They were flat characters. There wasn t any explanation for why some characters did some things because of that.

The acting was all right in S.W.A.T., though it wasn t anything spectacular. Samuel L. Jackson was good in his role as Hondo. Colin Farrell was good as Jim. He was very believable in the role. He also looked like he was in good enough shape to actually be on a S.W.A.T. team. I ve seen him in The Recruit and DareDevil recently. All three of those roles were very different and he was good in all of them. I thought Olivier Martinez looked familiar when I saw the movie. After I got home and double checked the cast list, I realize that he had been in Unfaithful. That role was very different from the part he played as Alex in this movie. I also thought that the actor playing Captain Fuller looked familiar but I couldn t figure out why. Then I did some checking and realized that he was in Ablaze. His roles were different, but I wasn t impressed with his acting in either movie. None of the other actors really stood out to me. Several of them didn t seem to do that much in the movie. Even though some of the members of Hondo s team didn t have a lot of lines. They were mainly just running around in their gear with guns.

CHARACTERS

Jim Street - He was on a S.W.A.T. team and got kicked off for something his partner did. He stayed in the lousy position he got put in. He wanted to get on another S.W.A.T. team, but he didn t think it would happen. He was good at his job. He was a former Navy Seal.

Brian Gamble - Jim s former partner. Brian didn t follow orders in a bank and shot a hostage. He left the force after that and he and Jim were no longer friends. Brian was very angry.

Hondo - He was a S.W.A.T. team leader. He been in the L.A.P.D. for several years and then moved to another city. He was back and he started a new team. He was serious about the job and seemed to pick up on things about other people. He was well respected and liked by most officers. Captain Fuller seemed to be the only person who didn t like him.

Captain Fuller - He was in command over the S.W.A.T. teams. He didn t like Hondo and he had it in for Jim. Fuller was smug and seemed to want to shift blame at times. He wasn t liked by many officers.

S.W.A.T. did have some problems, but it was entertaining. It is worth watching if you re in the mood for an action movie or if you are fans of any of the actors.

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