S.W.A.T. 2: Firefight

Los Angeles SWAT team leader Paul Cutler (Gabriel Macht) is sent to Detroit in order to certify the team there for Homeland Security work. Under his watch, they respond to a domestic abuse call that goes wrong, and everything goes downhill quickly.

Let me just give a shout-out to the cast. Gabriel Macht makes an excellent lead. I loved him in "The Spirit", and he does a fine job here of being a leading man, but also somewhat realistic in appearance (he is not as perfectly handsome as Hollywood could have made him). Kristanna Loken is given very prominent billing, but sadly a very small role -- which is too bad, given how much potential she has.

Stealing the show is Robert Patrick as millionaire Walter Hatch. Patrick may be best known to you as the evil robot from "Terminator 2". He has aged a bit and put on a few pounds since then, but is every bit as menacing even without the use of robotic shapeshifting.

I felt that this film took a lot of cues from "Speed". There is no bomb on a bus, or any bus at all. But Patrick seems to be playing a Dennis Hopper villain, there are still bombs, there is taunting, there is a damsel in distress. There is a mysterious background to the villain (wait for the twist -- very awesome).

I liked the film. Action, good plot, likable characters. I am not a big action guy (I am a horror fan), but this film gripped me and never let go. It was exciting beginning to end. A bit cliché here or there, but they were not aiming for Oscar gold. They wanted a fun, exciting action flick. And they nailed it.

I strongly suspect that this direct-to-DVD sequel to the movie S.W.A.T. was set primarily in Detroit not because the screenwriters thought it would add color, but because at the time the movie was filmed, Detroit was offering a generous tax rebate to movies that filmed in the city. Actually, the Detroit backdrop *does* add a little color, giving the movie an interesting background you seldom see in movies. Unfortunately, that's about all that's positive to say about this movie. It's a cheap-looking effort. The low budget is no excuse - I've seen some amazing-looking movies shot on low budgets. Robert Patrick (what happened to his career?) is pretty much wasted in his monotone part. The worst thing, however, is how boring and tedious the whole enterprise feels. There's hardly any action, and the action sequences are brief and unexciting. Apart from the backdrop, the only other positive thing to say about this in-name-only sequel is that it makes the disappointing original movie look better.

I think this movie is worth a '2'. It's start is already very cliché and American. Macho and only pretty people are playing in this movie. It's overall too slick. You find the best quote even heard in a movie: " She died for your sins, now you die for yours.." Huh? Who made that up!? It's the confirmation of what we already knew, five minutes after the movie started, this is a bad written script and a bad story-line. It's also really unrealistic how the relationship of the main character unfolds Acting isn't great too, but that's OK. To come to the conclusion: It's a really an all-American-macho-movie. I suggest you don't see this movie, it's a waste of your time. There are plenty of movies way better than this one.

OK, let me first say that this is my first ever review - I was compelled to write one based on simply how BAD this movie is. The only reason I didn't give it a 1 is because I have seen worse.

Another reason I felt angry enough to write a review is because I normally like these kind of movies. Normally all you have to do is include something like SWAT, SAS or Marines in the description of the movie and point me towards it and I will lap it up. Unfortunately however, SWAT: Firefight only succeeded for me in one regard - it has SWAT in its title.

The story is just weak, really weak. Just when you feel it is about to get going, it literally ends. Its cliché to an extreme and about as predictable a movie I have ever seen.

I wont go on but to summarize, this is just a bad movie. If you want some decent SWAT like viewing entertainment, I recommend Flashpoint (Canadian TV Series) or possibly watching paint dry could also be considered a viable alternative.

This movie I will describe like a coin - it has two sides.

The first side is the acting - on the contrary from most of the other reviewers, I found the acting very good. The characters are believable and the actors seem suited for their respective roles. I must admit that I watched this movie mainly because of the actors. I'm a big fan of Robert Patrick, hold respect for Gabriel Macht and it was nice to see Kristana Loken even in a minor role, which she played in style. The strong side of this movie are the actors and the characters - I like movies, that make me sympathize with characters, one way or another, in a positive or negative note. If you evaluate the actors' performance based on the first SWAT movie with Collin Farrel and Samuel Jackson, you might be a little disappointed, but if you watch it as a stand-alone, you might like it.

Now for the things I didn't like. The flip-side of this coin maybe some of you won't describe as something bad, but I personally am getting a little tired of a trend in recent action movies - sloppy endings. Some may say "this is an action movie, just watch the action and don't think too much for the ending!" But I like endings that make me smile and think to myself "yes, that was good!". In this particular movie, the ending is not only sloppy, but it just one more word - short. I fully agree with some other reviews that point out that maybe due to time restrictions the movie was cut short, but unfortunately the part that suffers the most is the ending. There are a few scenes throughout the movie that are just seen so many times and maybe if they were cut in order to add up a few minutes to the ending, the movie would have been better.

One other thing is the pace. The story unfolds pretty quickly, but the actual pace of the on-screen events is a little slow. Not that I find the latter as a flaw, but it kind of builds your thrill, I personally was expecting a grand finale that would blow me away. I like it very much when the good and the bad guy talk to each other, before the final showdown. Like De Niro and Pacino in "Heat". Maybe I'm too much of a yin-yang person, but I just would like to see something more of a clash of the titans endings in movies (literally, not like the movie by the same name). It doesn't matter if it is a happy ending or not, the thing that matters is HOW it is presented to us viewers. It may sound a little harsh, but I really felt robbed by this ending.

And something else - I really feel Robert Patrick's character (he is the bad guy) was presented too shallow. He has too little screen time to convince the audience he really is the bad guy, which is a big flaw of the script in my opinion. Patrick is a very, very, very underrated actor, especially when he plays bad guys and this movie does't utilize his talent whatsoever.

Don't get me wrong, this movie is worth a watch, if you like that genre (police, SWAT team action movies, hostages, tactics), you will enjoy it. But it just isn't something you will remember. If you're looking for something unusual, something that spans out of the box, of the cliché, you may be a little disappointed like I was. This is just an ordinary movie. It could have been great movie, but in my humble opinion it isn't.

6/10 - because good acting is never enough to save a poor story or a poor movie as a whole.