The Flipcritic

Earlier this year, I got a taste of BAD BOYS 2, a movie with such relentless action and just as much malice. It revolved around police officers that cared of nothing but themselves, their women, and their cars. After viewing such distasteful vanity, I was hoping that S.W.A.T. would offer something way more substantial. In some respects, it is everything BAD BOYS 2 was supposed to be. But in the end, it was not enough.

The movie begins with a S.W.A.T, rescue mission that ends somewhat successfully, but with unintended consequences. Jim Street (Colin Farrell of TIGERLAND) and his partner disobey tactical instructions during their operation resulting in his demotion and his partner's dismissal. His second chance arrives through Hondo Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson) a retired old-school S.W.A.T. veteran considered to be a legend within police circles.

Hondo is brought in to handpick police officers for an elite S.W.A.T. team. And sure enough, Street becomes one of his selections. Soon after their training and initiation, they come to arrest Alex Montel (Olivier Martinez of UNFAITHFUL), an unusually good-looking arms dealer who unexpectedly gets in trouble with the law through a traffic altercation (he probably could have made more money being a supermodel). Once in their custody, he offers $100 million on television to whoever can spring him from jail. It then becomes the duty of Hondo's S.W.A.T. team to escort him to a federal prison, hopefully without incident (which we all know will eventually take place).

That the movie contains shootouts, snarling foreign villains, and a daring special effects sequence near its climax, is without question. What is surprising is how director Clark Johnson attempts to make the action in S.W.A.T. as plausible as can be. There are acts and situations here that do not seem out of step with reality (as long as you're in a physical condition of an Olympic sprinter). Hostages accidentally get shot, car chases are unlikely in bustling city streets, erring policemen get demoted instead of being fired, fights scenes don't go on forever, and hardly any acrobatic somersaulting takes place. Just like Hondo says: they only roll in John Woo movies, not in real life.

One of the film's treats is its set of training sequences where we witness how a S.W.A.T. team comes to life. It is here that a cool and efficient professionalism that comes to embody the movie's first half, as well as the team it espouses. There are no snappy quips that so many cop-buddy movies tire of. No vulgar expressions or dripping machismo. The movie treats its subject just as the subject treats the people they serve to protect with respect and care. How rare it is to find movie cops nowadays that are wholeheartedly more concerned with saving others than with saving face.

With that said, it's sad to say that the concerted effort that Clark Johnson puts into crafting this professionalism in the first half becomes wasted in the second. After the refreshing look at his characters, their concerns, and their motivations, it is their conflict with the movie's antagonists that fails us. Where their training and background is absorbing, the action sequences involving criminals trying to rescue Montel are strictly by the numbers. It is hard to believe that after Montel exclaims his rescue reward, the law would break down in the city and that a rescue plan so brilliantly conceived, could be conceived at all on such short notice (Those L.A. gangs really have great logistics).

Clark Johnson is more of a character-driven director. He starred in the superior police TV-series HOMICIDE, and his knowledge in cop roles easily translates to a good relaxed feel with his actors here. You can see their chemistry as he gets good performances all around, especially from the easily recognizable toughness supplied by Michelle Rodriguez of GIRLFIGHT fame (is their any actress that is tough and sexy at the same time?), whose presence is underused. But when it comes to action, his heart isn't in it. He has talent, but not on the same kinetic level as Michael Bay and yes, John Woo.

Samuel L. Jackson in my mind is becoming typecast with all these tough guy characters the way Al Pacino and Robert De Niro have gotten associated with cop roles. His performance here, just like the movie's gun battles, is standard. Both he and Colin Farrell put their intensity on hold supplying reliable heroes with good convictions but wanting edge. They both deserve movies with more gusto and sharpness, and this isn't it. S.W.A.T. doesn't try and explode every flammable item in its sights, nor does it provide impossible acts of physical exertion. But it doesn't live up to its early promise. Hey, at least it's better than BAD BOYS 2.

Posted by FLIPCRITIC at September 3, 2003 12:00 AM