S.W.A.T.

-By Ethan Alter

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If nothing else, S.W.A.T. deserves recognition as the most unabashedly macho action flick to come along in quite a while. Watching it is somewhat akin to hanging out in a locker room for two hours, listening to guys joke about the size of each other's guns. Unlike those real-life jocks, though, S.W.A.T. avoids becoming an insufferable jerk of a movie. Chalk that up to the enthusiastic performances given by its well-cast ensemble and the deft direction of first-time feature filmmaker Clark Johnson. The movie doesn't contain a single original character or plot point, but it's entertaining--and, oddly enough, kind of charming--in its familiarity.

Colin Farrell, everybody's favorite Irish party animal, turns up in his fourth major role this year as Jim Street, a brash young member of the LAPD's celebrated Special Weapons and Tactics division. He and his partner Brian Gamble (Jeremy Renner) believe in making risky decisions to get the job done, but that approach lands them in hot water when a hostage situation takes a dangerous turn due to their actions. Facing a long suspension, Gamble resigns from the force in protest. Street, however, chooses to stick around and accepts a lowly position at the gun cage in the hope of winning back his place on the team.

His opportunity arrives six months later in the form of Sgt. Dan "Hondo" Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson). A former S.W.A.T. officer himself, Hondo has been enlisted by the higher-ups at the LAPD to train a brand new team that will hopefully restore some luster to the heavily criticized department. In addition to Street, Hondo recruits crack sharpshooter T.J. McCabe (Josh Charles), respected beat cop Deacon Kaye (LL Cool J), tough chick Chris Sanchez (Michelle Rodriguez), and Michael Boxer (Brian Van Holt), who doesn't seem to have any discernable personality beyond his mustache. Despite earning the enmity of department boss Captain Fuller (Larry Poindexter), the upstart team proves their mettle and is subsequently handed their first big assignment: transport international fugitive Alex Montel (Olivier Martinez) to federal prison. Unfortunately for them, Montel uses the media circus surrounding his capture to promise a $100 million reward to anyone who frees him from custody. More than a few greedy gangs decide to take him up on that offer, including one led by Street's disgruntled former partner Gamble.

Like I said, the plot isn't what you'd call innovative; its only real purpose is to get the characters from one shootout to the next. And yet the expository scenes here don't grind the proceedings to a complete halt as they do in most action movies. The actors approach these sequences with the right attitude--they don't underplay or camp up the tired dialogue, but they don't take it too seriously either. Farrell and Jackson in particular have a lot of fun playing off each other. In fact, some of their scenes together feel entirely improvised, as if Johnson just turned on the camera and told them to shoot the breeze. Rodriguez also gets into the movie's anything-goes spirit; a magnetic onscreen presence, the actress has played the badass chick in all of her movies to date, but she's never had the opportunity to inject some humor into the part. Her S.W.A.T. character allows her to lighten up, at one point even joining the other actors in an impromptu rendition of the theme song from the '70s television series on which the film is based.

As good as the cast is, it's Johnson who deserves the lion's share of the credit for making the movie work. An actor-turned-television director, Johnson has worked in front of and behind the camera on a number of stellar cop shows, including "The Shield," "NYPD Blue" and "Homicide." He successfully employs many of the techniques from those programs here, including "Blue"'s jittery handheld camerawork and "Homicide"'s elegant 360-degree steadycam shots. The action sequences are well-choreographed, too; this is real-world combat, from the numerous chaotic gun battles to the crude fistfight that closes the film. The explosions and gunfire grow repetitive after a while, but it's something of a relief to watch action scenes that don't require computer enhancement.

Like The Italian Job earlier this summer, S.W.A.T. is being positioned as the antidote to the typical blockbuster. While it's not as good as that very enjoyable heist movie, it does deliver on the action front. Don't be surprised to see it pop on Spike TV somewhere down the line; after all, this is the kind of movie that network was invented for.

--Ethan Alter