S.W.A.T. was so crappy that I was certain that it was Jerry Bruckheimer movie. It wasn't! I can't insult it any worse than accusing it of being from Jerry, so I'll stop now.

I was irritated with 2003's SWAT, a modernized, big-budget version of the gasping-for-air-it-was-so-stupidly-unintentionally-funny ABC series of 40 years ago. Eight bazillion thugs, pugs, and mugs spill out into the streets to collect a reward put up by a cartel-type to get him out of the clutches of the LAPD. It's like the excremental Predator II, with the streets taken over by zombies in doo-rags.Then, Director Clark Johnson gets it under control. Control being defined as holding on to the steering wheel of a tightly-plotted SWAT van of clichés. At no time did I believe anything I was seeing, but damned if I didn't get pulled into this nonsense, much the way I loved the old series. I actually felt a little goose-bumpy at times, kind of chilled from the excitement.Is there anything wrong in enjoying a stupid shootemup like SWAT? I don't think so, if the movie's heart is in the right place, the Dollar Tree philosophy isn't too thick, and the narrative throws out some surprises I didn't see coming.I saw SWAT on TNT some weeks ago, and even with the occasional gout of blood or F-cracker being eliminated, it still seemed to come to the small screen intact. If I can forgive the network hacks hacking out the icky stuff, I get a double whammy of good value--mindless entertainment, all in the comfort of my own home. Shoot, I just had to wait ten years to see it.So, if you haven't seen this professionally produced cinematic equivalent to a 10 piece box of Chicken McNuggets, look for it the next time it's on the tube.It's worth the empty calories.

LAPD SWAT officer Jim Street (Colin Farrell) is an ex-Navy SEAL. When his partner Brian Gamble (Jeremy Renner) disobeyed orders in an armed robbery takedown, Brian gets fired and Jim gets sidelined. Six months later, LAPD is under pressure and veteran SWAT Hondo Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson) is told to assemble a new SWAT team. Along with some veterans, he picks Jim, Deke (LL Cool J), and Chris Sanchez (Michelle Rodriguez). When French crime boss Alex Montell (Olivier Martinez) gets caught after a routine traffic stop, he tries to escape with an offer of $100 million and SWAT has to stop him.For movies like this, it's all about the action and the gunplay. The good news is that the story passes the smell test. It's not too complicated but it's also not simplistic. The characters are big stereotypes. The actors are all excellent. It's a simple popcorn movie. It does it well. Nothing more.

S.W.A.T. is neither here nor there, in that if it was made ten years earlier it would in all probability be better thought of. The problem is that there is such a long line of action movies that entertain without pushing the boat out, some, like S.W.A.T., throw a good cast list at it and hope that carries the film through, others just go over the top with the pyrotechnics and think that is job done. Abandon hope of something fresh and exhilaratingly kinetic and S.W.A.T. passes muster.The plot of S.W.A.T. basically sees Samuel L. Jackson put in charge of a crack team of five cops with attitude and guts. Their main mission, after all the training and baring out of character's respective traits and psychological make-ups, is to ensure an imprisoned drug kingpin doesn't get broken out of jail after said scum-bag offers a huge cash reward to anyone that can break him out of said police custody. Cue crash, bangs, double-crosses and a face from the past coming back into the picture after being telegraphed by an incident that opens the film.Along with Sam are Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, Josh Charles and Brian Van Holt. Oliver Martinez slips into the slimy villain shoes and Jeremy Renner does another one of his unhinged characterisations. Director Clark Johnson never breaks free of his TV roots, because the film often feels like a glorified TV episode, but his action construction is competent and he has decent actors to keep the film from sinking down among the dead men. Competent is the key word here, it's a decent time waster for the action movie fan, but really it feels like the action movie hadn't advanced much from the previous decade. A shame because there was much potential in the story. 6/10