I had generally high hopes for "S.W.A.T." at first. It seemed like a good flick, and I am a good fan of both Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Ferrel. The movie had a good cast, and nice cinematography, however those elements were hampered by the poor dialogue and unrealistic violence.
The plot: A team of S.W.A.T. police are forced to escort an international criminal to high security after he makes a 100 million dollar offer to anyone who can get him out of prison. Although he could easily be bluffing, local gangs decide to believe him and do their best to get him free by use of guns and other deadly weapons. The plot doesn't really begin until 45 minutes within the movie, after an unnecessary amount of training scenes and poor, badly scripted dialogue. It disappointed me to see the difference in dialogue between Colin Farrell in this movie and "Phonebooth" (Farrell was superb in that).
The movie contains a lack of realisticness in its violence as well. Hardly any blood is present. I laugh at the scene where a police bus driver is shot point blank in the skull, and we see bullet go through the window supposedly having had come out the back of his head, and yet not a drop of blood is seen. How realistic. I believe the filmmakers were a little too conservative in fear of the movie getting an R-rating.
Overall, "S.W.A.T." was a little too slow and poorly scripted for my tastes. Cool guns, nice cinematography, however the lack of everything else unfortunately leaves "S.W.A.T." a step behind in the art of cop/action films.
The plot: A team of S.W.A.T. police are forced to escort an international criminal to high security after he makes a 100 million dollar offer to anyone who can get him out of prison. Although he could easily be bluffing, local gangs decide to believe him and do their best to get him free by use of guns and other deadly weapons. The plot doesn't really begin until 45 minutes within the movie, after an unnecessary amount of training scenes and poor, badly scripted dialogue. It disappointed me to see the difference in dialogue between Colin Farrell in this movie and "Phonebooth" (Farrell was superb in that).
The movie contains a lack of realisticness in its violence as well. Hardly any blood is present. I laugh at the scene where a police bus driver is shot point blank in the skull, and we see bullet go through the window supposedly having had come out the back of his head, and yet not a drop of blood is seen. How realistic. I believe the filmmakers were a little too conservative in fear of the movie getting an R-rating.
Overall, "S.W.A.T." was a little too slow and poorly scripted for my tastes. Cool guns, nice cinematography, however the lack of everything else unfortunately leaves "S.W.A.T." a step behind in the art of cop/action films.
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