A "Die Hard wannabe which hits all its targets without ever scoring a bullseye" is how we described SWAT. It stars an engaging Colin Farrell, who hit the big time while he was making this movie - in fact, such is his current star status that he was too busy to get involved with this DVD.

Leftover Stars

Left to record the main audio commentary are stars who aren't quite as busy as Farrell, or so it seems. With charismatic contributors like Samuel L Jackson, LL Cool J and Michelle Rodriguez you'd expect an audio riot of cool, but they're rather short of anything interesting to say. Commentary track two with the writing team is marginally better, and that's not saying much.

Something to Swat

Extra features we'd like to swat: Well, the 'Making Of' featurette turns out to be an uninspired mix of interviews with cast and crew, all pleased to be working, and happy to talk about being in work. The deleted scenes remain quite rightly out of the movie and the sound effects feature does little more than confirm what we already know about the 5.1 mix.

Back To The Beat

Casting aside the slick and the promotional, we're left with a rather cool look back at the original 70s cop show that inspired the movie. Including interviews with the original Hondo and Deacon, there are also some effectively edited together clips of a show that was cancelled for being too violent but now looks frighteningly tame. Not so placid, and playing up to his hell-raising status, we end up with an outtakes section featuring Colin Farrell in full work-out mode complete with fag and drink.

EXTRA FEATURES

This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-N5 DVD player.