S.W.A.T.

Based on the 1970s television show, S.W.A.T. follows the members of Los Angeles’ elite special weapons and tactics unit, including Samuel L. Jackson’s Hondo and Colin Farrell’s Jim Street, as they spring into action after a notorious criminal (Olivier Martinez’s Alexander Montel) escapes from police custody. Filmmaker Clark Johnson, working from a script by David Ayer and David McKenna, does a superb job of immediately luring the viewer into the overlong yet briskly-paced proceedings, as S.W.A.T. kicks off with an exciting bank-heist sequence that effectively establishes Farrell’s protagonist and ultimately paves the way for a mostly engaging midsection – with the watchable vibe occasionally hindered by sequences of a somewhat needless variety (ie there’s some training stuff that could, and should, have been condensed into a montage). The familiarity of S.W.A.T.‘s narrative is consequently not as problematic as one might’ve assumed (and feared), and it’s clear, too, that Martinez’s compelling turn as the seriously smug villain contributes heavily to the propulsive atmosphere in the picture’s second half. (It doesn’t hurt, either, that the surprise antagonists that turn up later are equally compelling.) And although the movie closes with a somewhat anticlimactic fight that transpires entirely in murky darkness, S.W.A.T., for the most part, comes off as a better-than-average contemporary actioner that’s better than its reputation might’ve indicated.

*** out of ****