Home :: DVD :: Art House & International :: European Cinema  

Asian Cinema
British Cinema
European Cinema

General
Latin American Cinema
S.W.A.T. (Widescreen Special Edition)

S.W.A.T. (Widescreen Special Edition)

List Price: $19.94
Your Price: $14.96
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 .. 18 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Movie
Review: The moive is so cool. They have the greatest fighting scenes. Wacth this movie!!!!!!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Colin Farrell and Olivier Martinez in S.W.A.T (2003).
Review: Why do I want to see this film? Well, I remember the 1970's tv series S.W.A.T and in the 2003 motion picture, you have Colin Farrell and Olivier Martinez.
Before you watch this film, click on "Special Features", then click on "S.W.A.T-- TV's original Super Cops". There you will see some clips of the original 1975 tv series, along with a few clips of Frances Reid (currently on NBC Days Of Our Lives serial).
About this 2003 film, I didn't care for the casting of Samuel L. Jackson nor LL Cool J. Don't care for the rock n roll music. This movie certainly does not represent the professionalism of the real Los Angeles S.W.A.T team. This film makes the real S.W.A.T team look like young and only horny emasculated men. If you are laughing on the job, you are not paying attention.
From the 1975 tv series, Steve Forrest can be seen in a small TV bit and as a truck driver in this film. Rod Perry plays Deke's Dad.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Just Like TV Used To Be!
Review: S.W.A.T. remains faithful to the TV Series, even with the original music (which has not been updated). Sgt. Dan 'Hondo' Harrelson (Samuel Jackson as his usual intense self) runs a nearly roguish group of SWAT members including Jim Street (Colin Farrell as his typical impish self), Michelle Rodriguez (as the 'macho' wise-cracking female) and a host of other minor characters. When I say it's faithful to the television series, that's not exactly a positive comment. The action you see in the previews is fairly what you see in this film. Character development takes up most of the first half of the film (and there is not much to develop) and the rest of the action is just not what you would expect from a 'blockbuster'. Alex Montel (a nasty Olivier Martinez in a nice role) is the murderous villain who gets caught during a minor traffic violation (What?). As the LAPD discover how big a criminal he is, they transport him to a more secure place as the media is allowed to film him shouting that he'll give one million dollars to anyone who can free him. Thus, every hack criminal in L.A. tries (unsuccessfully, of course) to get him for themselves. Now, if you could free him, what guarantees he is going to pay that million? Never mind - this is just a movie. We are even given a chase scene through the L. A. sewers and subway system (very trite). The action sequences are of TV quality and the only excitement is the finale when a hijacked Lear jet lands on the narrow 6th street bridge in L.A. When a film is made from a television series, usually the ante is upped significantly, but this new version of S.W.A.T. is just rehashed '70's TV screenplay. Only one good guy gets killed and we never got to know the poor chump. If you saw "Charlie's Angels", you probably had a better, more inventive time. (Ouch!)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Action, Lousy Execution
Review: Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrel star in this modern update of the 70's super cop TV show. Overall, the film's concept was solid even if the execution wasn't so.

THE STORY

Sgt. Dan "Hando" Harrelson (Jackson) recruits and trains a team of L.A. cops for their elite S.W.A.T. division and must lead them into the field when an ultra-rich European crime leader puts out a $100 million prize to the person that gets him out of prison, of which there are MANY takers.

THE COOL STUFF

The trailers pretty much showed the great stuff. Watching the S.W.A.T. team take on all the baddies during the SECOND HOUR of the film once the bounty is put out was probably some of THE best action you'll see in any film as the bad guys come up with bold and ingenious ways to try to collect the bounty. Awesome stuff.

Best Scenes

1. The helicopter attack

2. The motorcade attack

3. The Bridge Fight

THE CRITIQUE

The most frustrating thing about the movie was that it took them a WHOLE HOUR to set up the best parts. The movie is easily broken up into two parts: HOUR ONE focuses on Hando putting the team together and training them (which is at parts fun but otherwise blah) and HOUR TWO which focuses on them trying to deal with the guys trying to bust out the evil French cartel leader (which is when all the awesome happens). Basically, if the team had been built up in a half hour and the next hour half focused on the S.W.A.T action the movie would have been a lot better. The movie basically looked like a souped up TV show pilot, which would be cool on its own, but is not really there for the big screen. To put it bluntly, the pacing was horrible, hour one was pretty boring and hour two rocked.

THE DVD EXTRAS

While the movie itself may have lacked a little the DVD extras are just light years beyond a lot of the other new releases out there, especially the sound editing features here. Here's what we get:

1. Director and Cast Commentary Track

2. Screenwriters and Technical Consultants Commentary Track

3. "Anatomy of a Shootout" - 8 ½ minute featurette about filming the bank shootout scene including the contrast in camera styles (news coverage format vs. traditional screen format)

4. "SWAT - TVs Original Supercops" - 6 ½ minute retro featurette on the original 70's TV show including interviews with the original cast

5. "The Making of SWAT" - 21 minute feature on the movie including information on casting, the characters, real life SWAT training, the SWAT lifestyle and SWAT equipment.

6. 8 deleted scenes (mostly rubbish scenes)

7. "6th Street Bridge: Achieving the Improbable" - 5 minute featurette on making the Bridge Scene including CGI and live action shots.

8. "Sound & Fury: Sounds of SWAT" - Deluxe extras including a 4 minute featurette on the sound editing for the gun fights plus various mini features on the guns used in the film including the Kimber handgun, AK-47, MP5 and M16, PLUS a sound editing breakdown on 4 scenes in the film. AWESOME feature!!!

9. "Gag Reel" - 3 minute blooper reel, we've seen better...

10. Filmographies for Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez and LL Cool J

11. Trailers for "Bad Boys II," TV Action Favorites (Charlie's Angels, SWAT, Starsky & Hutch, The Rookies and Police Woman Season DVDs), "Once Upon A Time In Mexico," "Radio," "Underworld" and "Big Fish" DVDs

THE VERDICT

Overall the movie itself fits in well into the weekend rental category. The movie pacing wasn't all that but all the awesome action in the second hour will wake you up and puts this movie over into the "passing" category. If you're into guns you'll love this movie and the DVD features make this a real keeper if you're into this stuff. Otherwise you can just file this in the "okay to rent" category.

GRADES

The Movie: 3 stars
The Extras: 5 stars
Overall: 4 stars

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: COULD HAVE BEEN A WHOLE LOT BETTER!
Review: Mr. Jackson is a true Great actor. However, he needs to be more selective in his roles. unless it is about the money.
I mean I am a big fan of his. But what impact did he have in this movie. Plus,The plot was weak. And the Villan was really boring. And You love to hate. I don't mean that in a Good way. No you actually hate his role and wish they could replace the actor along with his boring dialouge.

Movie should have been a TV movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Rock 'em Sock 'em Action Flick
Review: Who said you had to have a great plot to have a fun action film anyway?

Samuel Jackson and Colin Farrell carry this tense police action film all the way home. There are suspense, explosions, fight scenes, drama, car chases, and action scenes galore! The testosterone just flys everywhere. It was fun to watch and a solid score for the guys in blue.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Saturday Afternoon Fare
Review: SWAT, like many action flicks, has little in the way of plot. What it does have is hokey, already done, and (worst of all) predictable. Theoretically, that's okay, because we don't really watch action films for the great and meaningful story, now do we?

Of course not! We wanna see stuff blow up! Unfortunately, SWAT just doesn't deliver in the blow-it-up or burn-it-down department. Rather, the movie begins with a momentary bit of interesting character development, that the director leaves behind and never picks back up (a real shame, since it was the best part of the movie), continues of with an hour of nothingness, and then fizzles to a conclusion, having failed to deliver any thrill.

While SWAT is not the worst movie in the world, it certainly doesn't rank in the "just for fun action flick" genre. Rather, I would place it neatly in the "Saturday afternoon, rainy weather, nothing to do" category.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Swat this away
Review: I saw this at the cinema and it's rubbish. It has no story, lots of shooting, shouting, loud music and machismo. Samuel L Jackson sleepwalks through this looking like he wishes he was elsewhere (get Quentin on the phone!) and the other guy, Colin Farrell, is just too girly to be on a SWAT team.

This is garbage. Nothing to redeem it. Leave this on this shelf.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good and disappointing.
Review: Up and down, this film could have been so much better. Samuel L. Jackson was the best part of it all. Inconsistent action and a story line that was pretty bouncy made SWAT a little dull at times. Not a bad time killer movie, but none that I'll be adding to my collection anytime soon.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The movie about nothing
Review: Okay, this movie was alright. What it lacked in plot,orinality,and what-not, it made up for in action. The whole time, I was looking for some plot,I didn't find anything.This movie was seemed to have been written by some mediocre middle school student for a "Creative" writting assigment. The best thing about this whole movie was these model looking actors to keep both the women(F.Y.I. Collin Farrel) and the men( F.Y.I. Michelle Rodregez) almost paying attention to the movie. You can tell by the way that Collin has his shirt off alot in the movie and the fact that Michelle is this strong female role model who can take care of herself, which by the way makes her even more appealing to guys. Although, full of action sequences, car chasing and all of the nessesary elements to make an 'edge of your seat thriller' falls flat on its face.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 .. 18 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates