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S.W.A.T.
Sony Pictures Entertainment / Columbia Pictures


7.1

based on 35 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 28 votes
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FILM:

The Sentinel

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for violence, language and sexual references

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Jeremy Renner, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, and Olivier Martinez

Based on the 70's television series of the same name, this film focuses on the Los Angeles Police Department's S.W.A.T. (Special Weapons and Tactics) unit.

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	David Ayer David McKenna Robert Hamner (characters) Ron Mita (story) and Jim McClain (story)
DIRECTED BY:	Clark Johnson
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 30, 2003 Video: December 30, 2003 Theatrical: August 8, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	117 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Film Threat Kevin Carr

One of those guilty pleasures of the summer. It’s also one of those action movies that could have been ruined if Jerry Bruckheimer had taken charge of it.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

As the team leader, Jackson finds exactly the right tone for the role: a sort of playful cockiness that comes from knowing just how good he is. He's clearly having fun, but he never winks at the audience too much or allows his performance to devolve into camp.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

One of the best cop thrillers since "Training Day."

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Aware of its own cuteness because the dialogue plays by the rules of meta-entertainment.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Directed by Clark Johnson in an efficient and occasionally exhilarating style that points to the Emmy-winner's TV cop-show pedigree ("Homicide," "The Wire," "NYPD Blue").

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

While the movie is stupid, it is -- hooray, and let's put this in all the national ads! -- not appallingly stupid.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Offers up the kind of pleasures that only a summer movie can...The cast is good-looking, the soundtrack is loud, the plot is stupid.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The standout in the cast is James Todd Smith, whose acting talent may soon persuade him to shed his adolescent stage name of LL Cool J and concentrate on mainstream film roles.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The strongest parts of the film aren't these money shots, but the buildup to the gunplay.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

A thoroughly unremarkable police action movie starring the magnetic Samuel L. Jackson.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

As summer shoot-'em-ups go, this is pretty well executed, with plenty of macho posing and gunfire.

Empire Alan Morrison

Formula is now the name of the game, although a steady diet of stunts and shootouts ensures that the audience is never bored.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

S.W.A.T. boasts the kernel of a good idea - but it gets buried in the chaff of half-baked plot threads, partly realized characters and unstructured pandemonium.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Noisy, standard-issue cop actioner.

USA Today Mike Clark

By the time you've given up guessing whether S.W.A.T. wants to be a half-serious action pic or just affably jokey, its storytelling has turned so ludicrously melodramatic that it doesn't matter.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Though the film's second half has some good action moments, it never fulfills the promise of its earliest scenes.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Likely won't please fans of the original TV series, but the movie hasn't been made for them.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

What we have here is a model for the paint-by-numbers, perfectly generic, proudly soulless summer action flick. An original idea would die for lack of oxygen in S.W.A.T.

Variety Robert Koehler

Coming in the wake of the physically astonishing "Bad Boys 2," S.W.A.T. seems square.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Actor-turned-director Clark Johnson uses the flashy, up-to-the-minute editing and camera stunts action fans expect, but keeps the mayhem on a recognizably human scale — it's big, but not insanely overblown.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

There is something sneakily gratifying about all this: Not since the days of "Earthquake" have Hollywood producers so indulged their fantasies of trashing the town.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Those who love police overkill, guns, jingoistic race-baiting, guns, macho smugness, and guns will be well served.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's just one more competent but routine, midlevel ($70 million) late-summer action movie filled with the usual explosions, shootouts and male bonding.

Slate David Edelstein

I was all revved up to have a whale of a fascist good time, and S.W.A.T. left me let down and pissed-off.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Serviceable, wholly uninspired.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Mostly standard-issue muddle.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Technically clever but emotionally bankrupt...it's an almost laughably opportunistic movie.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A compendium of missed opportunities, uninspired action and clichés so tired, you wish the screenwriters had called 911, too.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

S.W.A.T. may be an acronym for Special Weapons and Tactics, but by the end of this routine melodrama, it might as well stand for Standard Whacking and Trashing.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

Lots of buildings and cars explode, but there isn't a spark between any of the characters.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Surely something more original than this could have been mined from the history of North America’s largest and most professional police force. As it is, though, Johnson’s film is just firing blanks.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

SWAT is better than "Gigli," but so is most outpatient surgery.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Seems best suited to all the couch-potato swinging dicks who get off watching the police on "Cops" keep the public safe from people in possession of marijuana.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Looks like the deformed spawn of a development process gone awry.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

A prototypical new-millennium summer movie, S.W.A.T. is no more than an extended trailer for itself.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Anson G. gave it a2:
Very poor movie. It was too long to start the real action at the end. The previous chapter was nothing, absolute awful. I was bored of the major action scenes. i would rather take a nap for an hours and watch other action. S.W.A.T is rental.

Gino E. gave it a 3:
S.W.A.T. is suppost to be an action movie.. But where is all the action? Especially at the end, where you really wait for something to happen, but it never does. The rest of it are just senseless scenes that have nothing to to with anything. This is what all of the action films are these days, but at least there is some firework in them. Not in this one though... And the French villain is awful... I truly hope they don't come up with a sequel.

OJ S. gave it a 10:
Definitely 1 of the best movie I have ever seen. it deserves lot more then a f*(**) 44. This movie was great and if u havent seen it watch it. you will c.

Melissa gave it a 4:
Yuck. Even taken for what it is, an action movie, no need for plot, the action sequences were haphazard, the special effects poor, and too many action sequences were way too dark to see what was going on. 4th rate, all the way.

Harold H. gave it a 9:
Loved it! Good, pure action from start to finish. Great additional information on the DVD in addition to the movie. Pure action entertainment.

Alan G. gave it a 9:
Very good, who cares what others think.

Bit Burn gave it a 5:
Well, if you have nothing else to do and you saw every one of the 950000 movies at your local video store then you might find this movie amusing enough to keep you awake for the evening! Seriously, it's an "ok" flick.

S.W.A.T. Sony Pictures Entertainment / Columbia Pictures

S.W.A.T.
Sony Pictures Entertainment / Columbia Pictures