S.W.A.T., an update of the short-lived ‘70s TV series and a new film made with entertaining slickness and good spirit, is the sort of action picture that's recently been supplanted by Hollywood gone ballistic with CGI, cops and villains as superhuman, one-liner robots, and high-tech gadget fakery. A welcome throwback to good old-fashioned, two-fisted police work.

Ubiquitous Colin Farrell, an excellent actor who these days seems to prefer exercising his considerable dramatic chops in high-concept Hollywood action fare, fills the standard issue role of the demoted and potentially renegade Los Angeles S.W.A.T. officer Jim Street. After a hostage situation goes wrong with his trigger-happy, reckless partner (a strong Jeremy Renner, last seen as Dahmer), Street gets stuck doing maintenance time in the gun cage. Their exploit leads to a wounded hostage and a multi-million dollar lawsuit, so their beleaguered captain is obviously in need of damage control.

Enter Samuel Jackson as Sgt. Hondo Harrison, summoned to create a powerful new S.W.A.T. team and restore the force’s damaged media reputation. Taking Jim under his wing and offering him a second chance at S.W.A.T., Hondo recruits a team that includes tough guys Michelle Rodriguez, L.L. Cool J and an unlikely Josh Charles.

Landing at LAX is Alex Montel (swaggering Olivier Martinez), a Euro-trash punk with multiple identities and murders, extortion, drugs and every other serious offense in the book under his belt. Before the film concludes, his arrest and subsequent televised offer of "one hundred million dollars to whoever gets me out of here," will create havoc on the streets of L.A. and test the metal and loyalties of the newly formed team.

These cops might be a bit on the two-dimensional side and their villain a Euro trash cliché, but say what you will about S.W.A.T. - tongue firmly planted in cheek, breezily coasting along on the backs of the fine Farrell and Jackson - it's the summer action movie that, for my money, offers the most bang for the buck. Fast, exciting, funny and well acted, this is simply a good time at the movies - and a welcome stopping place for anyone sick of carbon copy cop films that fail to come alive beyond their less-than-humble CGI origins.

What’s most refreshing about this film is that capable director Clark Johnson doesn’t feel the need to top the last action film out there, in this case the wildly unbelievable Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and Bad Boys II. By comparison, S.W.A.T. may even seem a bit square, content to be fairly basic on the uptake, loaded with fun training sequences and climaxing in a simple chase that feels real and is powerful in its staging. When a helicopter crashes on L.A.’s busy streets and a private jet later touches down on a small bridge to the peril of its occupants, we’re reminded just how exciting a movie can be by doing the basics well and carefully calibrating its action as not to go over the top.

The actors instill their stock characters with vitality and charisma, particularly Jackson, who's played a tough badass so many times it's practically a cottage industry for him. He can do a role like this with his eyes closed, but it's time to take a fresh look at him here – his control of every scene he's in is the mark of the best, most confident actors - anywhere, anytime, period.

S.W.A.T. does something I didn't think was possible in a summer of overheated and underwhelming action films, it restores a sense of scale and fun to the comic police thriller. Eschewing lame buddy-buddy hi-jinks and over-the-top digital trickery, it offers instead a few good performances and some realistically exciting action sequences.

Is it a great film? Not by any stretch. But as summer action movies go, it fills the requisite goods and though there’s not a lot of depth or originality here, there’s a freshness that’s appealing and always watchable, and a realistic action climax – unheard of in Hollywood’s "top this" mentality.

Recommended.