Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J
Directed by: Clark Johnson

S.W.A.T. is a pretty mundane cops and bad guys flick with some big guns. The story basically starts off seeing a group of potential SWAT guys training which is fairly interesting. They shoot stuff...put fiber optic cameras in stuff...insult people while talking about stuff... One hour and a half later, some guy played by Olivier Martinez is caught by the cops and is about to go to jail when he is filmed on TV offering 100 million dollars to anyone who can get him out of jail.

The next part of the movie is fairly entertaining. A bunch of thugs with more street 'creed' than a whole army of 50 Cents and Tupaq Shaqurs try to free him. It is taken for granted that hoodlums in L.A. have access to various automatic firearms, rocket launchers, grenades etc... It's kind of fun to watch.

But I have several problems with the movie, least of which was the dialogue. Though a lot of it was funny, any lines that were pertinent to the plot were delivered really badly. My second problem was there is no plot! They just have to keep some guy from escaping town. Who cares?

And talk about clich�s! How many movies have you seen where one of the cops is a tomboyish woman and when they find out that said character is a woman say, "Wow! You're a woman?" The police chief is a jerk, trying to screw over the skilled 'Jim Street' played by Collin Farrel. Then you got Samuel Jackson saying stuff like, "Ain't that a bitch?" and "You really ain't feelin' me on this one, chief!" I mean, I love Sam Jackson cheese lines but he only had cheese lines in this movie! Everyone did.

Then to top it off, SWAT has been hailed as a realistic action movie. It's not. Just because there are no big special effects and no stunts doesn't make this movie realistic by a longshot. It just means the producers got cheap. How many single moms do you figure would join a SWAT team? And if you got pinned to a train with a knife would you still be capable of grabbing the bad guy by the shirt and throttling him? And where the hell are a bunch of street thugs getting weapons to take down helicopters? And I don't believe that plane could have landed on such a narrow bridge. And you expect me to believe there are people out there named Jim Street?

Foggetaboutit! I would have been happy renting this one.

MastaCSG
Eight

DroopyMcC		Entertaining movie, but if I'd never seen it, I would not have cared a lick. I think it's more realistic than most movies of the same sort, but Jim Street? Come on!
Nine