S.W.A.T

Swat

Another TV to film remake I hear you cry. With the reams of 70's/80's shows that have made it from the small screen to the big screen, very few have actually performed well. Charlie's Angels, Mission Impossible, The Saint, and the downright awful Starsky and Hutch have all made the transition in recent years. But, SWAT appears to be something quite different, a film that manages to avoid the satirical form of Angels, the overblown stunts of Impossible, the cheesy gadgets of The Saint and the film plays straight unlike Starsky. Therefore, SWAT comes a cross as a real film with characters, relationships and some awesome action.

Colin Farrell's leap to mega stardom has seen him play some quite diverse roles, and this film gives him an opportunity to flex his muscles (something I'm sure the ladies will love) but also gives him some quite dramatic set pieces to work with. Farrell plays Street, a disgraced officer who is kicked of SWAT because his partner disobeyed orders, and Street wouldn't give him up. But, Street gets one last chance when he meets up with a SWAT commander played by Samuel L Jackson. Farrell's relationship with Jackson is well worked but not overplayed, and the pair seem comfortable sharing screen time together.

Jackson like Farrell has made some very different movies over the last couple of years. He performance in Jurassic Park is brilliant and he is 'too cool for school' in the Quentin Tarantino movies, but he has also appeared in Deep Blue Sea, which we will forgive him for! Jackson manages to bring an air of coolness to most characters he plays, and in SWAT its no different. Jackson plays Hondo, a SWAT commander who has caused a lot of trouble in the past, but is being given one more chance to bring a team of police officers together to form an unstoppable SWAT unit. Jackson's mission to create the perfect team brings him across LL Cool J and Michele Rodriguez, who both bring different skills into the team.

Whilst, Jackson's men (and woman!) start their training, an international terrorist played by Olivier Martinez is arrested for having a broken tail light and then taken into custody once they find out who he really is. The film takes a different turn, when Martinez puts a ransom on himself. Who ever can free him will collect 100 million dollars (as Dr Evil would say). The trouble is, this starts of a war over all the rivals groups in town, and mayhem soon reigns.

The film itself is simple enough, but manages to remain focused on the task ahead, whilst also managing to avoid becoming littered with cheesy chunks. The characters work well together, and Farrell puts in another good performance which will no doubt boost his A list status. The action set pieces are different enough to keep the audiences attention, and the obligatory training sequence is well done. Being a 12A, the film isn't able to get really gritty, and is possibly a little too long. But, there are minor criticisms of a fun film which can be watched again and again.