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

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

List Price: $19.94
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Swat Review
Review: I've noticed S.W.A.T hasn't got that many positive reviews which I think is kinda sad. Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell make a good duo in this fast paced action cop thriller. Of course, another interesting thing about this movie is that unlike many cop related flicks, this one has a pg 13 rating. Here's a run-down of the story. Farrell is Jim Street who works on the swat team and his partner is Gambles. Gambles is a troublemaker and Jim always covers up for his mistakes. In the beginning of the movie, Gambles disobeyed the cheif's order and b/c of this a hostage gets shot and is sueing the state. The cheifs has both men removed from the team, but since Jim was very cooperative with the cheif, he was given a chance to redeem himself. This leads to a falling out between the two partners. Luckily for Jim, Hondo(Samuel L. Jackson) the veteran swat leader was asked to assemble a team. Hondo after watching Jim during tryouts was impressed with his abilities and decides that Jim was the perfect guy for the team b/c he had the skills and he disliked the chief just as much as he did. During recruiting, Hondo selects Chris Sanchez, a woman who takes no crap from any one and has been trying for a long time to get on. Chris is Michelle Rodriguez ("The Fast and the Furious"), James Todd Smith (L.L. Cool J), Brian Van Holt and Josh Charles completes the team.
The pressure really is on Hondo b/c if he can't deliver a good time he and Jim are not kicked out of swat but off the force pd.
For a long while, we see the swat team going thru training and celebrating after training. Then the cheif put the team thru an real operation and they passed in flying colors. Finally after countless hours training and reaching the level of expectation from the cheif. The team gets their first assignment which is to escort a french drugdealer into the federal custody. However, that turned out to be harder than they imaged. The guy made 100,000 bond to help him escape. As you would expect alot of people took him up on that offer but shockingly the people we is associated with are two former swat members and one of them was Gambles. This lead to alot of finger pointing about who would be next to sell-out and help the guy. The team was able to stop them from flying away after surviving shootings coming from a line of thugs. The former partners fight each other which lead to Gambles getting ran over by a train, the other guy kills himself and the french drugdealer is back in custody. If you read this review and still not sure if you want to buy it, then at least rent it. I would recommend it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I hated it.
Review: Ok if you already saw the movie and liked it than I am sorry, go pay $20 for it and enjoy it but If you havn't seen it already please bare with me. I don't write many reviews on this site, this is my third i think (I write them when I'm bored mostly) but this I couldn't resist. If you want a boring, plain and most mediocre action movie ever than see this. Clearly one of the most predictable and vanilla movies there is. The action is good no doubt, but the script is crap and the plot has as many twists as a ruler (don't all laugh at once). Please If I can prevent one person from wasting money on this DVD than my thank god. But if you like average action movies that arn't famous for there great story lines (Lethal weapon, Die Hard, etc.) than go ahead and buy it, sorry for wasting your time. (By the way I didn't rent or see this movie in the theatre, I saw it on paperview, so don't feel bad for me it was only $3)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: You can see it coming... but it's a fun flick.
Review: This falls directly into being a fun "popcorn" movie. Director Clark Johnson, the man who gave that edgy handheld feel to "The Shield," goes for slick action here and hits the mark.

It's always risky to rehash "beloved" television shows. Especially when they weren't really beloved, and were more like a blip on the TV radar years ago.

Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell bring the right amount of testosterone to their roles. Josh Charles (Sports Night) is well cast as their partner with a secret. In fact, an overall strong cast.

This is not a thinkers movie though. Infact, if you think too much, you'll have it figured out long before the final reel. But, if you sit back, relax and enjoy, it's a good solid film.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: BAD BAD BAD - does not do justice to the original TV series
Review: It was with great anticipation that I went to see this movie. But what a disappointment!!! The original SWAT TV series was 100 times better than this movie. This movie is just a thrown together action film without any plot to appeal to low intelligence audience. AVOID at all costs.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not the TV show (good) Not Great and Not Bad
Review: It's an enjoyable movie. Watch it, enjoy it, then toss it out of your head once you're done. Fans of the TV show will see little resemblance but that's best. Jackson is very good, the whole cast is. Regular movie goers will be able to figure out most of the plot before it happens but that's ok also, this isn't deep literature.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: SWAT' S NEW WITCHU?
Review: Clark Johnson has taken a mediocre old t.v. series and turned it into an above average actioner. S.W.A.T. suffers most when it goes through it's "let's see who makes the team" moves, but once it kicks in, it's a high octane action flick. Some thoughts to consider:
*Is anyone else getting tired of movies being "promotional soundtracks"? There's so much junk music interjected in this movie and one knows it was put there to attract the teenies and sell records. It's a total distraction in this movie; what ever happened to good old fashioned musical scores that complemented the movie rather than make you want to turn the volume down?
*Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, Larry Poindexter, Barry Van Horn, Jeremy Renner, and Olivier Martinez, all did great jobs in their underwritten roles, but Josh Charles didn't quite have the strength to pull off his "surprise" twist.
*The plane landing on the bridge was pretty original and exciting.
*This is not a great movie, but it's an entertaining one!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fly S.W.A.T-ter
Review: S.W.A.T., is yet another film based on a television series, riding the latest wave of nostalgia--that's nothing new of course. What is refreshing though, is the fact that, unlike the Charlie's Angels films, S.W.A.T. stays away from the tongue in cheeck wink wink factor. Allowing for a straight forward film, with plenty of action, yet, it's not so serious that, the fun factor isn't there.

Sgt. Dan 'Hondo' Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson) is called out of retirement to form a new S.W.A.T. unit. Made up of veterans and new officers, Harrelson has his hands full. Sgt. Jim Street (Colin Farrell) lends a helping hand with rookie training. Among this group of newbies, Chris Sanchez (Michelle Rodriguez) and David Kay (LL Cool J) show both promise and peril. The team forms a freewheeling, yet highly effective S.W.A.T. team ever. Their first assignment: transport international drug kingpin Alex Montel (Olivier Martinez) into federal custody, after he offers $100 million dollars, to anyone who can free him.

Director Clark Johnson has made a very action packed film. He creates a tense, and exciting free for all, that's actually worth watching. The action is well choreagraphed and pretty impressive. The cast is solid and helps to sell the film. S.W.A.T. is not without a few hiccups though, the script is not the most original of the genre, and its "twists" are easy to see coming more than a mile away. Thankfully, the way the film comes together, belays any of these issues.

The DVD is pretty packed with extras, despite being a single disc release, and most of this material is worth your time as well. The first audio commentary track from Johnson and actors Samuel L. Jackson, LL Cool J, Brian Van Holt, Josh Charles, Jeremy Renner, and Michelle Rodriguez, is interesting. The actor's comments were recorded together, while Johnson's were recorded separately, and spliced in. With all of these participants, I was kind of surprised to find that there were a few lulls in the discussion. Better realized is the second audio commentary track with screenwriters, David McKenna and David Ayer, as well as Ron Mita and Jim McClain, who received story credit. The four men detail how the script came together, to be sure, but do it in such a breezy, fun manner, that it ends up as a must hear track, even over track number one. The eight deleted scenes don't really add much to the movie, and while fun to see, were wisely cut from the movie. A number of video featurettes take you inside the film. The 6th Street Bridge sequence is examined in detail in "Achieving the Improbable" The film's gun battles are the focus of "Anatomy of a Shootout" and is pretty intesting. S.W.A.T.: TV's Original Super Cops takes us back to the series, for sadly what looks like a long commercial for the first season DVD box set. The Making of S.W.A.T. is fairly typical stuff--interviews and such. And The last featurette, "Sound & Fury: The Sounds of S.W.A.T." offers demos, complete with specific scene breakdowns. Topping off the disc's bonus material, is a two minute or so gag reel, that works only with a single viewing. There are also various trailers and previews for other films and an easter egg for hunters to find.

S.W.A.T. will please action fans, without all the groan inducing humor of many other 70's retro films, released so far. It may not be perfect--but it works as a good "popcorn" flick

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Decent Summer Actioner
Review: S.W.A.T. is a typical summer action movie - several big set pieces with little coherent plot or character development. As such, it succeeds fairly well. Samuel L. Jackson stars as the team head, Sgt. Hondo, who returns to the force to help burnish the tarnished image of the Los Angeles S.W.A.T. He assembles a team of misfits, including Colin Farrell and Michelle Rodriquez, and LL Cool J. The team trains and is thrown into the field just as an international crime figure (Olivier Martinez) is captured in LA and is to be transported to a remote dessert prison. This transport mission is complicated greatly when the fugitive offers $100 million to anyone who can free him.

The movie features a few good action scenes, including a Lear jet trying to take off from a bridge, and the dialogue includes a few funny jokes. However, S.W.A.T. never gains much traction, largely because of the generic characters and plot. TV director Clark Johnson (The Shield, Third Watch) helms, and his apparent lack of vision is a major debit. With such a great cast, a good basic plot idea, and a large budget, S.W.A.T. should have been fantastic, but it ends up being a disappointment that will likely be forgotten quickly.

Extras: A potentially fun commentary track with the director and cast (sans Colin Farrel) goes nowhere as the director obviously recorded his commentary separately from the cast. The result is a disjointed and joyless commentary track.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ACTION PACK FUN
Review: Swat was a really awesome movie. It had so much action in it. Definetl one of the best movies of 2003. Its about a druglord offering 100 million dollars to whoever gets him out of jail. That offer causes problems for the swat team (played by Colin Farell, ll Cool J, and Michelle Rodriguez) who must transport him to a federal prison. This movies is fun to watch. I highly suggest this film.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: EXCITING BUT REALTIVELY PLOT-LESS
Review: Is plot-less a word? Ok..so how about nearly devoid of plot. SWAT is loosely based on the old 1970's TV show, detailinig the exploits of the elite LA police unit.

It's a senseless mess about a French terrorist (Olivier Martinez) who manages to throw L.A. into chaos while monopolizing the attention of a newly formed S.W.A.T. unit, which is under the command of tough-as-nails Dan "Hondo" Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson) and his ice-cold troubleshooter, Jim Street (Colin Farrell). Martinez offers 100 million dollars to anyone who can break him out of prison...causing every two-bit thug on the street to try, while SWAT tries to successfully transfer him to prison.

Ummm...I'm not a cop, but I think even I might be able to figure this one out more logically than the near idiot commanders of SWAT did. The presence of Jackson, Farrell and Martinez might seem to be some guarantor of quality, but "S.W.A.T." proves to be a disaster beyond anyone's control - including LL Cool J, who actually bills himself under two names, including birth moniker James Todd Smith. You can't blame him for seeking cover. The movie easily ranks with the most overblown, dumb and wasteful movies that either Jackson or Farrell (who usually choose good scripts) have made - say, Jackson's "The Long Kiss Goodnight" or Farrell's "American Outlaws." Neither actor gives a bad performance; in some scenes they're quite good, and so are some of the other actors, including Michelle Rodriguez as a Latina cop. She basically is the sterotype woman bad-ass character who wants to prove she can hang with the men.

And of course we also get the sterotypical police captain who yells and screams and threatens to kick everyone off the force if they screw up.

The movie acts as if originality were a crime, logic were a misdemeanor and suspects should be shot on sight. Instead of sending this S.W.A.T. team against modern terrorists (which would have been opportunistic but commercially smart), we see French madman Alex Montel, who supposedly is head of a worldwide drug cartel but acts as if he were a berserk Parisian fashion model high on cocaine. Arriving in L.A., he immediately throws a tantrum and kills his head subordinate. Then, after more tantrums and murders, he is arrested and screams out an offer on TV of $100 million to whomever breaks him out.

Montel is the movie's most valuable character, precipitating car chases, shootouts and jailbreaks galore, but his value as head of an international drug ring seems dubious. Could this nutcase even operate a small heroin ring in Hollywood? Why is he screaming out bribes on TV instead of conveying them through his lawyers? When did the French take over international drugs anyway? But Montel's weird offer is taken up by Gamble, the very cop booted off the force for recklessness, and soon he's come up with the most insane scene in the movie: a mammoth breakout and chase through the L.A. storm drain tunnels, onto the freeways and up to the skies - a scene not even Jackie Chan could bring off without laughing.

It's not a horrible movie..BUT check your brain in at the door.


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