'S.W.A.T' a sign of the season

• 'S.W.A.T' producer shares scoops on casting, expectations of film

By Michael O'Sullivan
The Washington Post

S.W.A.T. (PG-13, 117 minutes) contains a lot of gunplay and a little obscenity.

Did I say men?

In this post-millennial era of gender-blind stunt casting, this team of Special Weapons and Tactics cops also includes a member of the fairer sex, in the form of the buff and perpetually sullen Michelle Rodriguez. Her Officer Chris Sanchez brings not a woman's touch but the ability to crawl through shafts that the guys can't fit in to the updated TV lineup of Sgt. Dan "Hondo" Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson) and officers Jim Street (Colin Farrell), Deacon "Deke" Kaye (LL Cool J, acting under his real name, James Todd Smith), T.J. McCabe (Josh Charles) and Michael Boxer (Brian Van Holt).

This handpicked S.W.A.T. team keeps the film chugging along — "Move! Move! Move!" is its martial mantra — only when its members are doing what they're paid to do. When off duty, as when Street flirts with Sanchez over beers or over squirt guns at a child's birthday party, or when he is seen brooding under handsome mood lighting about the guilt-by-association he's still trying to live down (alluded to in a surprisingly dull bank-robbery prologue in which Street's partner, played by Jeremy Renner, accidentally shoots a female hostage), the movie stalls out. And I must say, it takes its sweet time, wasting unnecessary foreplay on training drills and dressing-downs by "paper-pushing punks" before it gets to what anyone who pays money for this sort of thing expects for his hard-earned eight or nine bucks.

Which is precisely what you've no doubt seen by now in all the trailers. When filthy-rich international fugitive and psychopath Alex Montel (Olivier Martinez, in a performance that will do little to repair relations between Washington and Paris) is apprehended in Los Angeles as the result of a busted taillight, he is broadcast on the TV news announcing to anyone who cares that he will give away "one hondred meeellion dough-lahrs" to whoever can get him out of jail.

Apparently, the reason no criminal ever thought of this gambit before is that few have that kind of ready cash. Anyway, every lowlife in La-La-Land with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher (and his brother) suddenly materializes in a display of absurdly well-organized criminal behavior. Hondo and company, who have been tasked with escorting Montel into federal custody, manage to quell the riot and hang onto their client, but only for a while. Soon, a far more formidable — and even more skilled — enemy shows up. I won't ruin the "surprise" by revealing who it is, but the planning, expense and logistical coordination manifested by this new set of bad guys are just as implausible as that of the previous, grass-roots uprising.

Still, if you can get past the preposterous premise (which I suppose is no worse than anything in the "Die Hard" movies or their ilk), "S.W.A.T." offers up the kind of pleasures that only a summer movie can. (Remember, I did say "mindless" at the top of this review.) The cast is good-looking, the soundtrack is loud, the plot is stupid and you get to hear LL Cool J — excuse me, James Todd Smith — barking "Tell Daddy how you want it" while shoving an automatic weapon into a Frenchman's face.

Party on, dude.

'S.W.A.T' producer shares scoops on casting, expectations of film

Arnold was supposed to be in it. Colin was signed on when he was less well known. There were multiple scripts, a few requiring prohibitive costs.

That's the behind-the-scenes buzz on "S.W.A.T.," the action film opening today that was co-produced by Chris Lee, a Hollywood veteran who now calls Hawai'i home.

We asked, and he answered, five questions:

Q. What attracted you to do this project and what was the timetable?

A. "I bought S.W.A.T as a concept about seven or eight years ago at Tri-Star; I believed the concept of an ensemble team of super cops (when people are in trouble, they call the police; when the police are in trouble, they call S.W.A.T.), using an appealing young cast combined with the audience's familiarity with the TV show and, of course, the theme song, would give the project a big leg up. I also thought it was time to do a positive piece on the police as heroes. It was all filmed in Los Angeles over the last year."

Q. TV-inspired films have had a checkered history. Some make it, some don't. What's your anticipation/expectation with "S.W.A.T.," since you have such powerful box-office leads in Samuel Jackson and Colin Farrell. Even LL Cool J, Olivier Martinez?

A: "Sure, and there's no sure thing, but I think the fact that there's a story to go with the characters (they have to protect the bad guy when he makes an offer of $100 million to anyone who frees him — and lots of bad guys take him up on it) will help. Also, when Columbia signed Colin, he wasn't as hot as he is (now). I do believe that having a mixed, urban-oriented cast, was key ... and it was always supposed to be that way. But at one point, Hondo (the Samuel L. Jackson lead) was going to be played by Arnold Schwarzenegger."

Q. Share an insight or two about the making of "S.W.A.T." What was the most daunting challenge?

A. "There were many versions of the script, and some were prohibitively expensive to make. It was also a case of getting the right cast and the right director. Our director (Clark Johnson) is a first-timer, but he made a big impression on everyone with his direction of the pilots for 'The Shield' on F/X and 'The Wire' on HBO."

Q. You're wearing multiple hats now. Still a Hollywood producer; co-founder of film school at UH, board member on the state film and TV commission. How do they mix and factor in your daily routine? And how involved are you with the Hollywood scene since resettling back in the Islands?

A: "I'm at the university every day. I'm committed to getting this program up and running and even though we're still not formally approved by the Board of Regents, there's great progress. We even have our first cash donation from an alumnus."

Q. You've always had a couple of irons in the fire, so what will be cooking in the months or year ahead?

A: "I'm just going to concentrate on getting Hollywood out here to Hawai'i as we did with Bryan Singer's 'X-Men 2' event, which was a huge success for us. In fact, we're going to do a fund-raiser for the UH at the Hollywood estate of my friend, director Roland Emmerich, in September."

Emmerich's projects include "Independence Day 4," "Godzilla," and "The Patriot."