S.W.A.T.: Firefight (2011)

S.W.A.T.: FIREFIGHT is a typically cheap B-movie thriller that follows a bunch of bland, handsome but soulless goons around as their SWAT team goes up against a psychopath bent on revenge. The only fun moment comes early on as Kristanna Loken shows up playing the girlfriend of the unhinged Robert Patrick, the only actor in this to give anything approaching a convincing performance. The rest is a mish-mash of cheaply-staged action sequences and dire dialog. The main actor is as wooden as they come and the whole story has a clichéd, seen-it-all-before feel.

I have been looking for a new hobby and watching this movie convinced me that writing screenplays is well within my abilities. All I have to do is watch any blockbuster cop movie from the 80's, change the actors and come up with a catch phrase for the leading actor. If I can convince someone to fund it and make a movie out of it, then I get to meet some of my favorite washed up actors. I feel so much better about myself.As for the movie, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent: Paul Cutler (aka John McClane), Walter Hatch (aka Hans Gruber), Inspector Hollander (aka Sgt. Al Powell), Kim Byers (aka Holly McClane) and McKittrick (aka Fritz). As for catch phrase, She died for your sins, now you die for yours (aka This time John Wayne does not walk off into the sunset with Grace Kelly).Too bad this movie didn't take place during Christmas as that would have been icing on the cake. Having a single name bad guy sidekick (McKittrick) was a good touch. I'm waiting for SWAT Hard 2 then SWAT Hard with a Vengeance, Live Free or SWAT Hard and finally A Good Day to SWAT Hard.

Although the original SWAT may have embellished the realms of reality a little, it was a movie I was still able to watch and enjoy to the most. This sequel however is really in the league of TV drama over any type of well researched and feasible movie plot execution. No doubt the money is there in the props and gear, but the execution is not beyond what I would expect to see on commercial TV in the middle of the day.I'm not adverse to stretching the realms of reality a bit, I enjoy the old Bond films as well as things like Die Hard 4, but the stretches of the reality in those films are within an expected context and add to the experience more in their own out there and comedic fashion. In this movie however everything is pitched as though it is supposed to be dead serious, so if you're a person who has even half a clue, or an ounce of respect for that matter, of what these guys do in real life, then this movie will most likely eat at you the entire way through. If it was made in the 80's, then maybe it would have been right at home.There was either little real world advice sought on the production of this, or it was totally ignored, since there is very little at all aside from the uniforms and the odd technical reference which made any correlation between them and their real world counterparts, especially so in their discipline and conduct. You could see this coming as soon as the opening credits rolled and we see a clip being filled with spent ammunition.So unfortunately I think we've just set the public impression and fear of what real SWAT teams are back about 20 years thanks to this movie, and I can now see a great many children being spanked and sent to their room for even suggesting any aspiration of being a SWAT officer when they grow up.Alas movies are not supposed to be documentaries. So the one main comparison for me that comes to mind between the quality of SWAT: Firefight vs the original SWAT movie is the difference between Behind Enemy Lines with Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman and the later WWE produced sequel Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia. If you're the type of person who enjoyed Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia without grinding your teeth the entire way, then SWAT: Firefight will probably ride well with you. Otherwise if you're the type of person who more enjoyed the first Behind Enemy Lines and enjoys a bit more believability in your story and some well researched details to what they are representing on screen, then this will probably just have you infuriating and wishing for that 90 minutes of your life back again.

In 2003, the film S.W.A.T. was another one of the many rehashes based on popular TV series and, in my humble opinion, it was not one of the best nor one of the worst ones; it was simply entertaining but forgettable. So, it was surprising to me to find out that, 8 years later, someone decided to make a straight-to-DVD sequel of that movie, surely with the intention of starting a low-cost franchise, with a famous title and a similar narrative formula to the ones from some modern TV programmes which combine cop action, melodrama and some special effects. But even more surprising was the fact that I found S.W.A.T.: Firefight very entertaining and much better than the original, mainly thanks to Benny Boom's efficient direction and the competent performances.S.W.A.T.: Firefight might not be completely original, but the screenplay is well structured, and I think I liked it more as a cop drama than as an action film. To start with, I liked the relationship developed between the main character and the officials from Detroit. The actors have a good chemistry with each other and they make a friendship forged between them after three years of high risks and mutual confidence in their abilities credible. The screenplay keeps the internal conflicts based on indiscipline and sexist ideologies to the minimum. In other words, S.W.A.T.: Firefight does not show the cops as spoiled kids with high-level guns, nor as invincible superheroes, but as responsible adults who understand the dangers they live day after day, and the responsibility they have with the citizens. Even the occasional romantic scenes are made with subtlety, even if their only function is establishing a "damsel in danger" with the intention of adding suspense to the movie's ending.What takes me to one of the best elements from S.W.A.T.: Firefight: the villain. Robert Patrick brings another one of his honest and credible performances in that role, and I also appreciated the way in which that character was written, because he is not a maniac with the only intention of conquering the world, but a man with a mysterious past trying to avenge the death from a loved one. Of course that that does not justify his violent actions, but it brings him a less arbitrary motivation to the one we saw in many other action films.Even though Patrick steals the show, I also have to mention the solid performance brought by Gabriel Macht in the leading role. I honestly could not swallow this actor in other movies I saw him (The Spirit, Whiteout and Love and Other Drugs), but in S.W.A.T.: Firefight, he brings a genuine and sincere humanity to his character. As for the direction, I liked the style and the way in which the action scenes were filmed. In conclusion, S.W.A.T.: Firefight is a very competent action film which ended up being much better than I expected, and which I consider to be worthy of a recommendation.