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S.W.A.T.
S.W.A.T. opens with a bank robbery, apparently based on actual events, in which the hero and the villain, who is currently a hero have to save the hostages. In what can only be described as a “Speed” moment, Gamble (Jeremy Renner) shoots the hostage, resulting in him and Street (Colin Farrell) being suspended. Street hangs around while Gambill walks away, which you just know is going to lead to a showdown at the end of the film. About ten minutes into S.W.A.T., Samuel L. Jackson walks in, and you just know that the ass-kicking is about to begin.
In what can only be described as Deus Ex Machina, which to be fair is something that no dodgy movie would be complete without, Alex Montel (Olivier Martinez), a notorious criminal gets caught, and it’s up to SWAT to transfer him. Things go wrong, people get killed, and most importantly, stuff gets blown up.
Dodginess
As far as action films go, S.W.A.T. is fairly standard and doesn’t really stand out from the crowd as far as dodginess. It manages a 3 on the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man scale. Having said that it doesn’t stand out, there are a number of scenes worthy of mention. The “Shoot the Hostage” opening sequence, while lacking originality (was done in Speed) was still pretty cool, while the shooting down of the helicopter, and subsequent sewer chase scene complete with claymore mine explosion was a highlight. However, the true dodgiest moment came when the jet was landed on the 6th street bridge. This may be possible, I couldn’t tell you, not being up to date on the braking statistics of jets and the dimensions of Los Angeles bridges, but it did strain the credibility of a film trying to be a semi-realistic portrayal of excessive violence.
Rewatchability Rating
Just about any movie with Samuel L. Jackson in is going to rate pretty high on the rewatchability scale, and this one is no exception. While it won’t always be your first choice for the mindless movie nights, it does have the benefit of being main stream enough that you shouldn’t have to use too many brownie points to convince your significant other to watch it, meaning you can save them up for the truly dodgy movies. S.W.A.T. gets a 4 on the rewatchability index.
Most Memorable Quote
You’d think that a line that could only be delivered with a straight face in a Jerry Bruckheimer production would get the most memorable quote, and while “Sometimes doing the right thing ain’t doing the right thing” is suitably bad, it doesn’t win. No, the winning line pays tribute to one of the best Mainstream Dodgy Movie directors around. “They only roll in John Woo movies, not in real life.”
Final Thoughts
S.W.A.T. is a fairly standard action film, but that doesn’t mean you should give it a miss. On the contrary, it is precisely this predictability that makes S.W.A.T. worth watching. It’s nice to be able to disengage the brain and just enjoy the show.