Film Reviews

SWAT

• Rating:
• Director: Clark Johnston
• Starring: Brian Van Holt
• Details: US / 113 mins / (15PG).

A big screen adaptation of a long defunct US TV series, SWAT is all power and no plot. A generic action picture with few pretensions towards artistry, SWAT's director Clark Johnston shows a Jerry Bruckheimer-esque degree of affection towards developing character.
For the record, uber Dub Colin Farrell plays Jim Street, a hot shot sniper whose reckless partner messes up an operation. This leaves our boy in a serious state until Dan 'Hondo' Harrelson (Jackson riffing off his most predictable cool dude screen persona) happens along and offers him a gig with the old SWAT team. The team is made up of Boxer (Van Holt), McCabe (Charles), Deke (LL Cool J) and Sanchez (Rodriguez) and they are thrown into the deep end of things when a recently captured drug lord (Martinez) offers a $100million reward for his freedom.
About as farcical a film can get without the express involvement of Ben Affleck, SWAT churns out the action film shticks with little regard for audience safety or dignity. There's no safety in numbers as the plot is so paper thin that an ungainly gust of wind could do it serious damage. Nobody does anything which could be remotely be confused with excitement or real invention here and the best that can be said of SWAT is that it manages to keep you watching - the action sequences aren't bad - but you are never quite entertained.

Review by Garreth Murphy