S.W.A.T.: Critic Reviews

75%

MovieWeb: 2 reviews

48%

RottenTomatoes: 169 reviews

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Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly (Top Critic)

67

The way I watch this action thriller is as a field guide to perceived current audience tastes in casting, characters, and storytelling style.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Elvis Mitchell New York Times (Top Critic)

40

S.W.A.T. is mostly standard-issue muddle.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Peter Bradshaw Guardian [UK] (Top Critic)

40

Reasonably entertaining for the first half-hour, after which your eyelids will be heavy.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Mike Clark USA Today (Top Critic)

50

There have been far worse movies this summer, but the best justification for seeing this spinoff of the mid-'70s TV series is if your date or mate is holding you hostage in the theater.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Stephen Hunter Washington Post (Top Critic)

While the movie is stupid, it is -- hooray, and let's put this in all the national ads! -- not appallingly stupid.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Michael O'Sullivan Washington Post (Top Critic)

Offers up the kind of pleasures that only a summer movie can.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Ty Burr Boston Globe (Top Critic)

50

Those who love police overkill, guns, jingoistic race-baiting, guns, macho smugness, and guns will be well served.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Michael Atkinson Village Voice (Top Critic)

A rigmarole of stranded cliches and thrill-free action-movie legerdemain.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Jack Mathews New York Daily News (Top Critic)

63

Fresher popcorn than most of the sequels that have come and gone.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Eric Harrison Houston Chronicle (Top Critic)

59

An over-amped action film with just enough character shadings and color to make us wish it were better.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Chris Vognar Dallas Morning News (Top Critic)

59

A fun way to kill two hours.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Lisa Kennedy Denver Post (Top Critic)

50

Strictly standard issue.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Peter Rainer New York Magazine (Top Critic)

There is something sneakily gratifying about all this.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times (Top Critic)

75

A well-made police thriller.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Michael Wilmington Chicago Tribune (Top Critic)

38

A big, near-incoherent action thriller best suited for audiences who don't mind being pummeled into submission.
Full Review » 9 years ago
J. R. Jones Chicago Reader (Top Critic)

As summer shoot-'em-ups go, this is pretty well executed, with plenty of macho posing and gunfire.
Full Review » 4 years ago
Steven Rea Philadelphia Inquirer (Top Critic)

75

S.W.A.T. is by the numbers, by the book, and, by the way, pretty good.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Colin Covert Minneapolis Star Tribune (Top Critic)

88

An outstanding pulp thriller.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Bill Muller Arizona Republic (Top Critic)

40

It's every police movie you've ever seen wrapped into one, done so stiffly that the characters are barely able to bend at the waist to collect their hundreds of spent shell casings.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Robert Koehler Variety (Top Critic)

Director Clark Johnson strives for realistic detail and action. Unfortunately, such adherence to technical purity proves to be a weakness for the movie.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Megan Lehmann New York Post (Top Critic)

50

A lifeless trudge through squandered opportunities and god-awful dialogue.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Roger Moore Orlando Sentinel (Top Critic)

20

A worn-out yawner of a cop thriller where even the cliches seem to realize how dated they are.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Peter Howell Toronto Star (Top Critic)

40

S.W.A.T. has blockbuster ambitions, but it develops characters and plot at a leisurely pace better suited to the small screen than the big one.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Stephen Cole Globe and Mail (Top Critic)

38

A film full of phony swagger and dialogue so awful you hope for once-distracting conversations to break out in the theatre around you.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Charles Taylor Salon.com (Top Critic)

You can't get mad at it -- except for the two hours of your life it steals from you.
Full Review » 9 years ago