by MARK SLUTSKY

Barely five minutes into S.W.A.T. and Colin Farrell's already been thrown off the squad. It'd actually be a little shocking if the movie didn't make use of that old plot device, as nearly every cop movie in the last quarter century has, but its appearance so early in the movie does not bode well. What follows is a shambling, episodic cop action flick that somehow manages to get by on its cheerful nature.

After an incident involving numerous angry bank robbers, Farrell and his dippy, but supposedly menacing, edgy partner (Jeremy Renner), are thrown off the SWAT team for disobeying orders. Farrell sticks around, while Renner storms off in a huff. Unfortunately, this guy will show up later in the movie, as one of the worst bad guys in any cop movie ever. Six months pass, and Samuel L. Jackson, a legendary old officer, is brought back to assemble a SWAT super-team, for some vague reason. He picks Farrell, and a couple others (including LL Cool J and Michelle Rodriguez, the latter being the toughest and sexiest thing in this movie) and they all go off to training camp and have a great time.

Back on the force, our team of heroes do a bunch of generally SWAT-ish things until the movie's real bad guy shows up. That would be the devilishly handsome Olivier Martinez, playing a rich Euro-baddie. Picked up by the cops for a traffic violation (I'm not kidding), Martinez is sent to jail, but not before offering "one hundred million dollars!" to whoever can bust him out. Approximately five minutes after this generous offer is made, seemingly every gang in the world descends upon Los Angeles and starts blowing everything up.

Clearly, lots of stuff happen in this movie. They're all out of the cop-movie screenwriting handbook, and they don't really flow too well together, but at least the filmmakers keep 'em coming: training exercises, arrests, chases, fights, sing-alongs. It's enough to keep you mildly entertained, and at least everyone smiles a lot. S.W.A.T. would've been a complete disaster if it had taken itself any more seriously - as such, it's just a late summer trifle.

S.W.A.T. opens Friday, Aug. 8

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