Director: Clark Johnson
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Olivier Martinez, Michelle Rodriguez, L.L. Cool J

A big-budget adaptation of the short-lived ‘70s series that starred Steve Forrest and Robert Urich, S.W.A.T. is a glossy (with a little bit of grit), high-octane, fully functional Hollywood cop film. It’s not art – just a lot of fun. Samuel L. Jackson stars as Lt. Hondo, an old-school member of L.A.’s Special Weapons and Tactics organization brought back by the force to assemble a new team to help curtail the police department’s recent bad press.

For this team, he chooses hothead Colin Farrell because he knows how to shoot, gruff Michelle Rodriguez because she can beat up guys and L.L. Cool J because he can run f ast. There’s also a couple inconsequential members in the new S.W.A.T. team – Josh Charles, because he was in Dead Poets Society and Brian Van Holt, because no cop movie is complete without the guy with the stupid mustache.

After some cool training sequences, the team is quickly called upon to use their expertise to serve and protect in a variety of tough situations, most notably the prison transfer of international slimeball Oliver Martinez (every bit as hateful as in Unfaithful). When Ollie tells TV cameras he will give $100 million to anyone who can spring him, L.A.’s underbelly comes out in full force to try. That’s when the movie brings out all the weapons, vehicles and tricks it can muster.

Part of what lifts S.W.A.T. above the usual dreck of producer Neal Moritz (The Fast and the Furious, xXx) is that it has good actors, a serviceable script and a real director in charge – Clark Johnson, who’s given good cop TV in the form of Homicide, The Shield and The Wire[i/], so he knows his stuff. Yeah, it has the annoying rap and metal music soundtrack, but it also has Michelle Rodriguez actually smiling – and that’s a rare thing indeed.