S.W.A.T.: Firefight

A passable direct-to-video sequel, S.W.A.T.: Firefight follows hotshot officer Paul Cutler (Gabriel Macht) as he’s sent to train and certify a ragtag S.W.A.T. team in Detroit – with trouble ensuing as Paul is unsuccessful in his attempts at saving a hostage (Kristanna Loken’s Rose Walker) from a volatile psycho (Robert Patrick’s Walter Hatch). There’s little doubt that S.W.A.T.: Firefight suffers from many of the problems associated with the DTV arena (eg horrible dialogue, shaky camerawork, etc), yet the film, despite opening with an unconvincing, poorly executed action sequence, eventually does manage to overcome its various problems to become a watchable actioner. Macht’s strong work as the cocky central character certainly plays an instrumental role in initially capturing the viewer’s interest, with the surprisingly adept supporting cast perpetuating the movie’s relatively affable atmosphere. (And though Giancarlo Esposito is a lot of fun as the prototypical angry captain, it’s Patrick’s deliciously smarmy turn as the villain that stands as a highlight within the proceedings.) The decidedly repetitive nature of the film’s structure (ie the whole thing seems to boil down to a series of training and on-the-job sequences) is generally not quite as problematic as one might’ve anticipated, and it’s ultimately clear that S.W.A.T.: Firefight‘s most glaring deficiency is its ongoing reliance on needlessly ostentatious visuals – as filmmaker Benny Boom suffuses the movie’s action-oriented moments with a variety of eye-rollingly over-the-top flourishes (ie do we really need POV shots from the perspective of the various characters’ weapons?) The end result is a solid timewaster that looks even better when compared with the usual junk littering the DTV scene, which does ensure that the film is destined to fare best among grizzled fans of low-rent action flicks.

**1/2 out of ****