'S.W.A.T.' isn't a masterpiece, but its aim is true
If you were around in the '70s, you heard it: the theme music from the TV series "S.W.A.T.," with its relentless, thumpy disco edge. It was the aural equivalent of a gold medallion tangled in chest hair, and once you heard it, it never went away.
This week, with the arrival in theaters of the movie "S.W.A.T.," the tune is back, like one of those ghostly supporting characters who turn up decades later for a cameo, and — well, you try getting it out of your head; clearly, I'm doomed.
The movie wrapped up in all this nostalgia-pop actually isn't too bad, though it has little in common with the TV series other than a few character names and a vague premise. "Hondo" Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson), a veteran LAPD sergeant with a few scores to settle, is charged with creating a young, kick-ass new S.W.A.T. team. He does so, only to find his team's mettle quickly tested by an international drug lord (Olivier Martinez, so swoonily handsome he'd give the husband in "Le Divorce" a run for his money), who's offered $100 million to anyone who can help him bust out of jail.
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Director Clark Johnson is a movie novice but a TV cop-show veteran (He's directed episodes of "Homicide: Life on the Streets," "NYPD Blue," "The Shield" and others), and he's clearly comfortable with the material; the scenes between the cops have an easy camaraderie. He and the screenwriters are less successful with the movie's occasional and mostly heavy-handed humor (Example: One cop slams another's head into a mirror, but the potentially powerful moment is undercut by the sudden appearance on the soundtrack of the Stones tune, "Shattered").
As is common with this sort of ragtag-team-makes-good story, much time is devoted to the assembling of said team, with Jackson presiding over them like an amused football coach. Jim Street (Colin Farrell) is a maverick cop who's been stuck in the "gun cage" after a controversial shooting got him yanked off a previous S.W.A.T. mission. Deacon "Deke" Kaye (LL Cool J) is an agreeable family man who likes to show off his nicely cut abs. And Chris Sanchez is — surprise — a woman (Michelle Rodriguez), who conveys her own considerable toughness with a steely gaze and extremely tight tank tops.
They train, they fire guns, they bond at the local bar (at which they triumphantly sing the "S.W.A.T." theme music, just in case we were in danger of forgetting it), they triumph in a dry run, they confront the swoony French guy. Along the way, cars, planes and trains crash, fires are started, and people jump from high places; it's all quite watchable and occasionally diverting, like a good-quality TV cop show blown large.
As summer popcorn movies go, you could do worse than "S.W.A.T.," particularly if you keep a close eye on Farrell. The dark-eyed Irish actor had a similar role in "The Recruit" — another young man in training, not quite formed, not quite controlled. But watch him in a tiny scene early on, as he says goodbye to a former girlfriend; it's a note-perfect moment, full of regret and rueful tenderness and not-quite-love, all squeezed into about three seconds. This guy has big-star charisma, and this movie can't quite hold him; maybe the next one will.
Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com