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Customer Reviews:- Junk!!
Its amazing how Hollywood can spend all that money, have access to actual talent worldwide and still put out one junk movie after another. Don't bother watching this.. See the original John Capenter movie instead if you want to enjoy yourself....more info - Solid Movie
Assault on Precinct 13 [HD DVD], is a very good movie. It has a balance of action and suspense and is well done. The 2 main stars Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne give great performances, and so does the rest of the cast. If you liked Training Day, you should check this movie out. The bonus features were also interesting and very detailed so check those out as well....more info - Alot of twists and turns
I watched this movie and was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It had alot of twists and turns involved which is what I do like to see in movies. The acting was excellent and the plot was a good one too. I recommend this movie that likes the good cops, bad cops scenario. ...more info - An entertaining, Saturday night movie!
I never saw the John Carpenter version of Assault on Precinct 13, and when the newer version, directed by Jean Francos Richet, came out a couple of years ago, I remember that it got rather bad reviews by most of the major movie critics. Though it took a couple of years, I finally decided to pick up a copy of the Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne film on DVD, and it wasn't bad. By now you know the plot. It's New Year's Eve in Detroit, snowing up a storm outside, and Precinct 13 is about ready to close down for good with only a skeleton crew manning the station. A police bus filled with several criminals and on its way to the major jail has to pull over to Precinct 13 and hold up for the night, or until the snow lets up. One of the criminals on the bus is Marion Bishop (played by Fishburne), a man who supposedly killed a cop. During the course of the snow-filled night, a small army of well-armed men surround Precinct 13 and demand that Bishop be handed over to them. At first the few police officers inside the precinct (led by Ethan Hawke, who's still recovering from a drug deal gone bad in which two of his people were killed) think that it's Bishop's men trying to rescue him. That thought is quickly dispelled when it's discovered that the army of men is actually made up of crooked cops who want Bishop dead in order to protect their own identities. Hawke's character refuses to give up Bishop and so the siege begins as the cooked cops try to find a way into the station so that they can kill everyone. While not a great movie, it's certainly an entertaining one. Both Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne take to their roles like ducks to water with the able support of Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo (I didn't recognize him in this role, though his voice sounded familiar), Maria Bello, and Gabriel Byrne as the main bad guy. There were a few things that I had a problem with. Plot spoilers ahead, so beware. The first is that the precinct is supposed to be located in the run-down part of Detroit, which means that there should've been people living nearby who'd hear the automatic gunfire and call the honest cops so that they could find out what's going on. Why didn't that happen? Second, since it was just a stroke of bad luck that the bus of criminals ended up at Precinct 13 (at least I assume it was), how was the cooked cop who worked inside the station able to set things up and lead everyone into an ambush with Gabriel Byrne's people near the end of the movie? He had no way to contact the cops outside of the station to let them know what he was planning to do. Third, as one reviewer noticed, it did seem like the entire Detroit police force was trying to shoot its way into Precinct 13. There couldn't have been that many cooked cops who were willing to kill their brother officers in order to stay out of jail. Fourth, the final showdown takes place in the woods. Where did the woods come from? I don't remember seeing any trees around the station during the earlier part of the movie. It's like this forest just appeared from out of nowhere. I guess that movie magic. Anyway, other than those four observations, this a fun movie to watch on a Saturday night with a big hot pizza to keep you warm. It's fast paced and everyone does an adequate job in their roles. No Oscars here, but plenty of fun. ...more info - Assault is more like an insult
Assault On Precinct 13 is an action packed film starring Ethan Hawke (Training Day), Lawrence Fishburne (The Matrix), John Leguizamo (Carlito's Way), Brian Dennehy (First Blood), Ja Rule (Scary Movie 3), Gabriel Byrne (End Of Days), and Maria Bello (Secret Window).
The story is set on a very snowy day in Detroit where a group of the city's dirtiest criminals including cop killer and big time gangster Marion Bishop, played by Fishburne, are held in broken down Precinct 13 managed by troubled cop Jake Roenick, played by Hawke, and a few of his staff. All of a sudden, an army of corrupt police officers led by Marcus Duvall, played by Byrne, storm the precinct in an effort to kill everyone inside for the sake of getting their hands on Bishop. Jake finds himself put in a dilemma where he will have to put his hand in the hands of criminals to survive throughout the night and make it out alive.
The script, like the story, is vague. Ethan Hawke, who earned an Oscar nomination for Training Day, seems to be overacting; the screenplay, on the other hand, seems to have been written over a short period of time, giving the actors little to work with. And throughout the time the poor good guys and bad guys were held in the precinct, I was wondering why didn't anyone pick up a cell phone and call for back up!?
Mindless action movie lovers will love Assault, but avid film-goers, like myself, will most definitely pass it by.
Not really recommended
D+...more info - The original was great, but the remake is even better
On New Year's Eve, the few remaining police officers at a police precinct that is set to close the next day, and their prisoners, find themselves cut off from the outside world and under siege. Their attackers outnumber them considerably and will not stop until everyone inside the precinct is dead.
I am probably committing a sacrilege by saying this, but even though the original John Carpenter version of "Assault on Precinct 13" is a really great film, the remake is even better. Screenwriter James DeMonaco has taken Carpenter's original idea, kept all of the things that worked and fixed all of the things that didn't. For example, in the original film, the people attacking the precinct were essentially zombies: they never spoke; they had no personality; and they kept on coming at the precinct with no fear of death and with only the flimsiest of motives. In the remake, the attackers are humanized (in the form of Gabriel Byrne) and given a motive that is strong enough to make me believe that they would lay siege on a police precinct and keep going to the death. DeMonaco also gives more humanity to the people inside the precinct. These people, particularly Sgt Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) and gangster Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburn), are real people with real flaws, whereas in the original, I always felt that criminal Napoleon Wilson (Marion Bishop's counterpart) was a bit too honourable to be a gangster. These changes made this film a lot more satisfying for me and convinced me that this is the better of the two films. Having said that, the original is also thoroughly worth watching and I recommend that anyone who is interested in seeing this film see both versions, back to back, and make up their own mind about which is the better of the two.
...more info - Weak and unbelievable story
The whole story is so senseless and weak, it just tries to keep the movie running. Basically, this movie could have been ended after 5mins... ...more info - Bullets to the head a deep statement for director
Once you get past the obvious crime of remaking the Carpenter cult classic, itself a takeoff of Rio Bravo, you can while away two hours here with handsome production and a lot of people getting shot in the head.
It's not terrible, by any means. First, recognize that every single film you love will eventually get remade. Hollywood has been doing it from the beginning.
In this updated, updated Western, it's New Year's Eve and a decrepit Detroit police station is about to shut its doors for good. There are a couple of cops, a secretary, and a lot of dust and antiques left. No computers, the phone lines are down, and a raging blizzard outside. All is well as the few folks left inside drink and celebrate.
The just-arrested kingpin of Detroit, Bishop (Laurence Fishburne) is being transported to jail on this very night, and with the roads a total mess, the bus is forced to stop at Precinct 13 for the night and store its human payload in the ancient, Hannibal Lecter-esque cells. Bad news for everyone inside.
Turns out that Bishop has many a dirty cop on his payroll, and recently whacked a cop who tried to shake him down. So now an army of cops, headed by Gabriel Byrne, decide to assault the police station and take out Bishop and everybody else inside.
What follows is a lot of shooting, explosions, human drama, etc, etc. There isn't much logic, and the absurdity keeps escalating until the finale, which takes place in the woods, which appear to be right down the road from downtown Detroit. I don't know Detroit, but I really, really doubt there are thick woods right near the rotting industrial area near downtown. I'm just guessing.
Anyway, the whole thing becomes truly amazing. Byrne and his crew, and there has to be like 30 of them, manage to commandeer SUVs, body armor, sniper rifles with scopes, automatic weapons with silencers and cartridge-catchers, stun grenades, night vision goggles, and what amounts to the most high-tech gear, including a helicoptor(!), and yet, yes, I will spoil it, they have amazing difficulty taking a falling-down police station staffed by a handful of people with 1/50 of the firepower. It doesn't make any sense. Attack after attack is repelled as our heavily armed dirty cops, who presumably all told their wives they had to 'work' on New Year's Eve, bumble their way around. Sure, they manage a few cool tricks, and they kill their share, but seriously, this operation should have taken about 10 seconds of breaking down the front door and blowing everyone away in a hail of automatic fire. Instead, Byrne and Co set up shop for HOURs, with nobody noticing. Blizzard, sure, but even in the worst part of Detroit, something tells me somebody would notice a commando squad seiging a building. Oh, and everyone's favorite modern-day technology, the mighty cell phone, is conveniently neutralized as someone is 'jamming the frequencies', a line thrown out there and just accepted. Not only are these cops packing more gear than the Delta Force, they're jamming cell phones, cutting power, calling air support. Seriously, this is the most incompetent bunch of over-equipped lackies since the Imperial Storm Troopers all poured through that hole in the wall at once in the original Star Wars.
The movie has plenty of violence, people getting shot, a good beating, a random samurai sword, molotov cocktail action, gratuitous guy on fire, a whole bunch of people getting shot in the head and some really pointless shots of the brain-hole bleeding that must have really meant something to our Frenchman director, a doublecross, a lot of CGI snow that, at one point, isn't falling from the sky at all but just swirling around in the air like a snow-globe, and Ethan Hawke giving it his all as a troubled, alcoholic, pill-popping, skinny cop.
It's watchable, there's enough action, your usual character scenes before said characters get bullets in their respective heads, blah blah blah. In the end, the true accomplishment is the ability to take $40 million or however much this thing cost, and completely miss what Carpenter was doing with $100 back in 1976. That's the magic of Hollywood--to remake an old idea with 200 times the budget and make better-filmed, more advanced, more expensive crap, and craft a master hack career in the meantime. With this and The Fog appearing in 2005, it's truly only a matter of time before somebody comes out with their 'vision' for a Halloween remake, or more likely, an Escape From New York remake. With more bullets to the head.
...more info - Jive Turkey
"Assault on Precinct 13", newbie French director Jean-Francois Richet's terminally brain-damaged retread of John Carpenter's legendarily spooky pulp classic, is actually TWO movies.
Movie #1: is actually good, and in Assault's hyper-kinetic opening sequences serves up a police drug-bust gone horribly wrong and sets the stage for what you think is going to be an amazing action flick. Ethan Hawke (playing Detroit PD Sgt. Jake Roenick)goes right to work, seizing control of the screen from the first second, sporting a buzz-cut, meth-ruined chompers, and an addict's goofy grin and acid-fast rambling conversation as he lures two Serbian druglords into a sting---and makes a *really* bad call, which sets us up for Movie #2 and had me thinking I was about to see something groundbreaking.
Movie #2: Boy was I wrong---Movie #1 is only about eight minutes long, so basically "Assault on Precinct 13" *is* Movie #2, and unlike Movie #1, this ain't a good movie---nor is it interesting enough, or take any real risks, to be truly bad. Like the title character from "Shirley Valentine" said of her husband, "It's not that my old man is bad---he's just no bleeding *good*".
The same can be said of the new "Assault'", which tries desperately to be hip, hard, cold, technical, and cool---and falls on its face. "Assault on Precinct 13" takes place on New Year's Eve, in a Detroit police precinct house that is being shut down (no phones, no computers, no way to call for backup---you getting that sinking feeling?) on the snowiest, nastiest, coldest day of the entire year. Sgt. Roenick (Hawke) and company are closing the station down and getting ready to party like it's 1999---er, 2004.
Midway through the festivities, the prison-bus transporting Uber-bad-dude Maurice Bishop (Lawrence Fishburne, reclaiming both dignity and cool after his Eat-a-Burger stint in the last two Matrix movies), a druglord being prepped for trial, has to make an emergency stop at Precinct 13. Baddies with ski-masks and black SUVs show up shortly thereafter with enough firepower to knock off a third-world country(and have stuff left over) and a hankering to send Bishop into the hereafter.
Result: Siege. Grand Result: Total boredom.
Stuff I liked:
1) The killer opening sequence and Ethan Hawke, who---much as he did in "Training Day"---takes standard, mediocre action fare and brings his entire being to the material. Jake Roenick is nothing we haven't seen before ("Lethal Weapon"-lite, actually), but Hawke makes us care. Nice job.
2)Lawrence Fishburne as a hip one-liner spouting cool-Machine. It's nice to see Fishburne get his mojo back.
3)I LOOOOOOVE techology!---and in the new Assault, we get tons of it: machine guns, assault rifles of every stripe and sort, hip little MP-5 shooters, tracer bullets, sniper scopes, laser targeting, nightvision goggles, you name it, Assault has it.
4) CGI-snow: I'm not being nasty, I thought the CGI-snow worked---it looks great. Frankly, the movie looks great: the bleak sequences where Hawke is driving to the stationhouse in his Mustang, the vast stretches of Michigan industrial-slag scape, the fight in the woods, the deserted factories around the stationhouse---Assault may not *be* good, but it looks good.
5) Retro-songs: "You're nobody Til Somebody Loves You" took me back to "Diehard", which this movie badly wishes it was.
6) John Leguizamo & Brian Dennehy. Leguizamo (Beck) owns this movie as a strung-out junkie con, body by Meth, politics by Che Guevara. He owns every single scene he's in. Same with the action sequences: the only time "Assault" ripped and roared, Leguizamo had the gun. Brian Dennehy (O'Shea) is at his overweight-veteran-character-actor best, and gets the grooviest death scene I've seen in years.
Things that stunk up the joint:
1)The Siege Idea itself: Gabriel Byrne (Duvall) makes the stupidest decision ever: why send your loaded-for-full-warfare henchmen to kill cops at a police precinct, even if you absolutely, positively have to kill the bad-guy overnight? Wouldn't one single sniper on a rooftop when Bishop gets to his destination have been just as effective? Why take the risk?
2) Don't let French people direct American action flicks. I loved Luc Besson's "The Professional" as much as anyone, but the SWAT team thing (sending cop after expendable cop to "check it out", just so Jean Reno could rack up a bodycount) did *not* reflect any kind of reality in terms of SWAT ops.
Same here. Byrne's guys are truly the gang that couldn't shoot straight: from the pathetic opening attack, to the one-time use of their laser-scopes, to the inept snipers, to the hapless and over-equipped assaulters---the bad guys in Assault make Imperial Stormtroopers look like crack shots, while Byrne sits in his SUV, drinks coffee, and sulks.
3) Ja Rule. Every scene he's in made me pray for his brutal, violent death. Note: Violent, yes, but not nearly brutal enough.
4) The Action sequences are crap. Richet uses extremely close cuts and quick editing, so you can never see what's happening. We also never really get a good idea of the stationhouse layout or the neighborhood geography, so the boundaries of this siege are never spelled out. As a result, I could care less about when the troops are moving in, or from what angle.
The new Assault could have been a contender, but instead emerges as an object lesson in how not to kill a bad-guy. It's the cinematic equivalent of a Big Mac: greasy, cheesy, mediocre, and instantly forgettable, and leaves you fat and sluggish afterwards. Check out the original Carpenter classic instead.
JSG...more info - Prove me wrong, Silent Bob
When I first saw the TV previews for this movie I immediately thought it would be a deathmarch through the formulaic wasteland that is a Hollywood action movie.
I was wrong.
Buoyed by strong performances from Hawke, Fishburne, Dennehy, Byrne, DeMatteo and (yeah, seriously) Leguizamo and Ja Rule, "Assault on Precinct 13" provides a solid plot and several twists and turns. Pretty impressive for a movie that doesn't even have a change of scenery over the last hour-and-a-half.
My biggest initial gripe is that the connection between Fishburne's Marion Bishop and Byrne's Marcus Duvall is vague at best. However, most of the frustration that stems from that lack of back story is slowly resolved over the course of the film and you'll start to realize that it's not even important to what's happening on screen.
(Actually I do have another gripe: For a precinct that is supposedly in inner-city Detroit, there sure is an expansive, lush forest located nearby. But, again, it sets the stage for a fairly gripping closing scene/shootout in the woods).
Hawke and Fishburne stand out, but the supporting cast steals some scenes in their own right. And there are several graphic and bloody death scenes that will make you sit up even if you've somehow lost interest in the movie.
Nothing groundbreaking here, but a thoroughly enjoyable jaunt and a hell of a lot better than the latest Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer movie, whatever that might be....more info - Predictable but still quite watchable if you go for Ethan and Lawrence
I'm giving this 4 stars because even though some of the characters were really predictable, the chemistry between Ethan Hawke and Lawrence Fishburne was fabulous. On that merit alone, it deserves 4. The rest of the movie is about a 2 1/2.
The characters are very stereo-typical. You get very little about the background of Bishop (Lawrence Fishburne's character) and Ms. De Matteo's character is constantly referred to as "Secretary". Ethan Hawke's character gets some exploration, but it's nothing original and I'm not totally sold on the conversations between he and his "shrink".
Ja Rule's character, Smiley, is a bit silly and the psychiatrist's character was really underdeveloped. I did like John Leguizamo's character though he was mostly annoying. He, at least, had interesting things to say even as he irritated those around him.
Still, the action was good and the director made a point to make the fights as realistic as possible (meaning avoiding those scenes where someone jumps 20 feet across the room or avoids a bullet through a move that defies gravity). There were some unnecessary bits though, like a scene between the therapist and DuVall, the villain.
I still laughed and enjoyed the suspense of this film. It is honestly fun to watch as long as you keep it in perspective. Just go into it for the fun of watching Ethan Hawke and Lawrence Fishburne banter back and forth about whether they are going to kill eachother or kill the cops hunting them.
I think that the movie could've ended differently, though I appreciated the resolution of the situation between Ethan and Lawrence.
I'm sorry that I don't remember any of the character's names other than Bishop and Smiley. It's that kind of movie. You can remember the roles people played, but you may not remember their names unless you've just gotten through with the movie. The characters are essentially JUST roles because they aren't fleshed out enough other than to be The Crime Lord, The Sarge, The Veteran Cop, The Secretary, The Junkie Criminal, The Shrink, the Female Criminal, The Silly Criminal, The Cop Who Foolishly Returns, The Villain, and the faceless Henchmen.
So, as long as you don't expect anything more of this movie and you go into it for the chemistry between the main characters, you'll do just fine with ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13! You'll also be quite happy if you like guns and things blowing up!...more info - On the inside looking out at the outside looking in....
Sgt. Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) is a burnt out X undercover narcotics officer with a painful past. A few years back...while involved in an undercover sting, things went horribly wrong; leading to the death of 2 of his team officers.
Fast forward a few years later to New Years Eve and Jake now has a low stress level desk job at soon to be defunct "Precinct 13". He drinks and pops pills on the job in an apparent attempt to forget the memories of that horrible day and of his fallen comrades.
This is the last night of operation at "Precinct 13", as it will close after New Years and the remaining officers are to be transferred to a newly built and bigger precinct across town.
A blizzard is raging, and in an attempt to transfer some prisoners to another locale, the harsh weather conditions force some local officers driving a prisoner transport bus to make a pit stop at "Precinct 13" until the weather clears up. Along with 3 other lowly criminals comes Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne) a high profile gangsta just busted for a cop killing.
There are only 4 people at "Precinct 13" when the bus arrives. Sgt. Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke), soon-to-be retired Officer Jasper ( Brian Dennehy), Officer Iris Ferry (Drea de Matteo), & police physcologist Dr Alex Sabian (Maria Bello) who was detoured from an earlier visit by the snow.
Soon...all the officers find themselves fighting for their lives as assasins stake out the building from outside and try to weasel their way in. At first it is assumed that they are Bishops henchmen, looking to free him and help him escape. This quickly proves not to be the case, and the officers AND the prisoners find themselves working together to fight off the deadly intruders.
"Assault on Precinct 13" is a formulaic action movie, but now a days, aren't all action movies that way? The film flows nicely, has some pretty intense shoot-outs, and some nice blood and gore to top it off. Hawke's and Bello's performances are the stand-outs, but they are accompanied by a well rounded cast of good actors.
All in all, "Assault on Precinct 13" is a pretty decent and entertaining shoot-em up action flick. If you enjoy films of this nature, this one is worth at least a rental. ...more info - Fun movie for a quiet evening
As I've never seen the original (though reading some of the other reviews I probably should), my reaction is entirely based on this movie. And, frankly, I liked it a lot. It wasn't the most intelligent film out there, nor even the most intelligent action film out there, but it was smart and creative enough so that the audience is still close to the edge of their seat throughout the entire movie.
If you're looking for a movie that you can just relax and have fun watching, this is a good one. But it's probably better rented than bought....more info - HD DVD version is fantastic
This is one of the better movies to enjoy as HD DVD version. The picture quality is stunning. 80% of the movie plays at night or in dark environment. That's when you see the difference to the standard DVD: Where the DVD version was murky and impossible to detect any details in dark areas, the HD DVD shines. I was able to see wall structures in finest detail and things like that add to the true movie feeling. I whish there were more HD DVDs like this one.
The sound is good, too. Even though the disk makes no use of the new audio standards for HD DVD, it still rocks. To my ears, it was not better than the DVD version, though. The surround effects are well placed and the subwoofer had plenty to do.
Yeah, I know I only talked about the tech aspect in this review; but HD DVDs are still scarse and early adopters are frankly more interested if the picture and sound quality is good. Believe it or not: Even if this was a really bad movie (and it isn't), most owners of HD DVD players would still watch it just to test their precious high tech home movie theatre.
If you read the other reviews it's clear: The movie IS good. Thank god. Unfortunately, there are only a few really good movies on HD DVDs out there and this is one of them....more info - STAND AND DELIVER
Fans of director John Carpenter are in turmoil. First off, they saw the franchise he began, HALLOWEEN, turned over to various directors who made some decent and some not so decent films. Now they are preparing for a remake of his horror film THE FOG. And somewhere in between this movie, ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, became a remake. And we all know what fans of original films think of remakes.
As a fan of Carpenter, I decided never to be this way. I always approach a movie with an open mind. Granted, many remakes omit every single shred of story that make an original work, relying more on their "own interpretation" which is Hollywood speak for yeah we kept the name to cash in on it but made a totally different movie. But you have to give someone credit for at least trying to get it right. And that happens here.
Original? A precinct house is closing, staffed by few people, no phones or radios, when suddenly a gang who has recently acquired assault weapons attacks. In the midst of this, a prison bus shows up with a sick prisoner and a mass murderer on board. While under attack, cops and crooks join forces to stay alive. More or less a remake itself of RIO BRAVO in some eyes.
This time around the basis is kept intact but the loose threads are rewoven. Rather than taking place in LA in the summer, this movie takes place in Detroit in the midst of one of the worst blizzards of recent memory. Does this affect the story? Simply put, no. The mass murderer is replaced with a cool and calculating killer in the form of Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne), a street gangster with blood on his hands who has been captured after killing an undercover policeman and is not on his way to jail.
Along the way, the blizzard forces the prison bus to reroute to Precinct 13, a precinct closing down to make way for the new stationhouse. Staffed by flirtatious secretary Iris (Drea de Matteo) and retiring grizzled old cop Jasper O'Shea (Brian Dennehy). The precinct is headed up by Sgt. Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke), an ex undercover cop who we watched lose his team at the films beginning. Stuck in a desk job while recuperating from wounds gained in that battle, Roenick has more psychological than physical wounds.
Into the station comes Roenick's department ordered shrink, Alex Sabain (Maria Bello). The two banter about, he lifts his file and she leaves only to return a short time later, stranded due to the blizzard. And then it happens.
This misplaced group finds itself under attack from outside forces that sneak in with the intent of killing Bishop. Along with his co-prisoners Smiley (Ja Rule), Anna (Aisha Hinds), and strung out Beck (John Leguizamo), Bishop sits stranded in his cell while the killers walk the halls. Stopped by one of the guards, who is then killed, the assassins regroup and begin their siege of the precinct.
Who is this group out to stop Bishop? Is it his gang like Jasper claims? Or someone else? If you've seen the previews on this one then you already know that the killers are a group of special forces cops who were in league with Bishop and need to silence him before he has the chance to talk and sink them all. Led by Marcus Duvall (Gabriel Byrne), they will stop at nothing until Bishop and all witnesses are dead.
As the night moves on, the attacks continue and the defenders inside the precinct unite to ward off their assailants. One by one, and in a fashion that actually surprises in its choices, this band is whittled down until it seems that no one will survive and there will be no escape. But hey, this is a movie and things like that never happen.
The movie is filled with tons of action, the sort that most fans of the genre are looking for in films like these. But for those fans, they get more than they bargained for in the performances of the lead AND supporting actors. And the story all makes sense and ties every loose end together leaving nothing hanging (save for the ending in a good way).
This movie may not be John Carpenter's ASSAULT. But it turns out to be a fast paced, well made action film in its own right. And if that's what you're looking for, then you won't do better than this one....more info - Good Action Movie
Assault on Precinct 13 starring Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne is a good action movie. Hawke stars as Police Sergeant Jake Roenick who is in charge of Precinct 13, a station that is about to be demolished. He is in charge of a skeleton shift on New Year's Eve when a van carrying a group of baddies to jail is forced to take shelter because of a blizzard. Among the baddies is Marion Bishop, played by Fishburne. He's a major bad guy who is responsible for the deaths of Hawke's team from an undercover operation gone awry.
When the precinct comes under attack, Roenick is forced to cobble a defensive squad composed of his few people that are on duty and the prisoners. Things get even worse when he discovers that they are being attacked, not by Bishop's colleagues, but by other police officers who have been on the take from Bishop for years and are now afraid that his arrest means their graft will be exposed.
The story is tight, with strong performances from Hawke and Fishburne. The character of the police psychiatrist is very annoying, but that's a minor distraction. A bigger problem is that the scenes are filmed in the dark because the precinct's power supply is cut, which makes it very difficult sometimes to see what is happening. Note to filmmakers: We don't care if something is happening in a dark setting- we want to be able to SEE it, so shine a light on it, okay?
If you enjoy action films such as the Die Hard series, then you will probably enjoy this movie. There's enough action to keep things exciting, with a good plot to hold everything together.
...more info - Top 10 Worst Movies of all time
Waste of 35mm. Horrible acting and script. Have no idea why they keep on making remakes of classics just to mess them up. The formula is already there. Was disappointed considering it had a good cast. Not one single actor believed in the script. Don't waste your time nor money....more info - An Action-Packed Remake!!!
I think I like this version better than the original! It has more action, it's New Year's Eve, it's snowing! At a rundown precinct, four prisoners are dropped because of weather conditions, after the New Year's ball drops, the sh#t hits the fan. Crooked cops are coming to kill Bishop, a cop-killer. The crooked cops will kill anyone who gets in their way. The good cops must receive help from the prisoners if they want to make it out alive! If you love action, you'll love ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13!!! ...more info - Here is why you should never remake a great movie
This exercise explains why you should never remake a film that was great, as was "Assault on Precinct 13" when it was made by John Carpenter in 1976. The star power on parade in this flick -- Gabrial Byrne, Ethan Hawke, Drea de Matteo, Maria Bello, Lawrence Fishburne and John Leguizamo -- cannot save this from being little more than an overtly violent Xerox copy of the original with none of its panache or imagination.
While Carpenter's original -- a remake of the Howard Hawks-John Wayne western "Rio Bravo" -- was bold, exciting and unpredictable with a plot that emphasized chaos, this film is unbold, sometimes exciting and goes too far to explain every little detail about why the gang is attacking the police station that is closing on New Year's eve. It not only does nothing the original didn't do better, it leaves nothing for the audience to figure out on their own.
While Carpenter's original cast a bunch of no name actors with no budget and turned out a monster that became a national hit once it was circulated later in the decade on HBO, this movie never gets over being a tepid retread.
What disturbed me most in this bad remake is the collective portrayal of the female roles. In the 1976 original, there was only one woman in the cast, a secretary in the police station. This one reprised that role, added a psychiatrist in a short dress, and a black female prisoner.
While not bad in itself, what is unforgivable is these women were cast as the archetypal cliches of Hollywood films. Two of the women were extremely and dressed in garb to accentuate their sexiness, while the black female was (of course) a streetwise prisoner declaring her innocence in rap rabble. Oh yes, she could hotwire a car too.
Were the people that wrote, edited, produced and directed this film so unimaginative as to not take one risk with a female character? The answer is no and that is the endearing formula for this movie: remake the original with modern technique and take no risks to be different or better.
A couple of the actors distinguished themselves within the context of this unimaginative film. Fishburne was, as always, a commanding screen presence, Leguizamo added a dimension to a cliched prisoner role, and de Matteo showed she can become someone other than Adrianna from "The Sopranos" and the other TV characters she has portrayed.
But these performances were not sufficient to deny comparison between this and the original, a comparison where this film inevitably suffers badly. Your only chance to truly enjoy this movie is to never have seen nor heard of the original. If that's you, then go for it. But after you're done with this, go out and buy the original from Amazon.com and find out what can be achieved with this idea....more info - not as good as the previous edition
I got the previous edition from Walmart for over 5 bucks and loved it. So I thought this one would be better. But it wasn't. Surely, they have better technologies and better weapons, but it was not there. "Just another action movie."
...more info - More Die Hard 2 than Carpenter, but not bad at all
The 2005 Assault on Precinct 13 is an above-average remake, an efficient Saturday Night Special that never quite gets the adrenaline pumping in the action scenes as much as it could but doesn't trash memories of Carpenter's no-budget classic as much as expected. If anything, the template here is more a scaled down Die Hard 2 minus the planes, even going so far as to borrow both central plot twist and one of the more memorable killings. Ethan Hawke is in Tom Cruise-lite mode - all the focused self-righteous concentration with none of the Scientology - and Laurence Fishbourne offers a smooth update of Darwin Joston's cool criminal but Maria Bello is wasted in a nothing role that exists solely to serve Hawke's redemption backstory. There are a couple of neat new plot twists and one unexpected killing, but mostly this delivers familiar genre thrills with a comforting lack of originality. It's certainly more effective than the French near-remake Nid De Guepes/The Nest.
The DVD extras, like the film, are satisfying without being particularly outstanding, though it's a shame the trailer isn't included. ...more info - Hmmm...
What to say about this remake of a great film. This is one of the few action movies that is character driven and not plot driven. Sure the plot line is always there, but it seems that the director made an effort to show us who was trapped in the building.
I really enjoyed this movie. The action is non-stop and keeps you waiting for what will happen next. There are also enough plot twists to keep you guessing.
If you are an action film fan this one is for you!...more info - Is that a phosphorus grenade in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
After watching this slick, snazzy, and wholy unnecessary 2005 remake of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), which, by the way, was a remake of the Howard Hawks/John Wayne film Rio Bravo (1959), I found myself asking one thing...where the hell is the cholo? If you've seen the original, you'll know what I'm talking about...if you haven't, then search it out, because it's an excellent film, much better than this one, which isn't actually half bad, but then again it's only about half good...make sense? Probably not, but like Jesse `The Body' Ventura's Gatlin gun wielding character in the movie Predator proclaimed, "I ain't got time to make sense."...oh, wait, he actually said "I ain't got time to bleed."...well, I ain't got time for neither...directed by a Frenchie named Jean-Fran?ois Richet (Ma 6-T va crack-er, De l'amour), the film features Ethan `Chicken' Hawke (Gattaca, Training Day) and Laurence `Cowboy Curtis' Fishburne (Apocalypse Now, "Pee-wee's Playhouse"). Also appearing is Brian Dennehy (Cocoon, Silverado), Maria Bello (Payback, Auto Focus), Jeffrey 'Ja Rule' Atkins (The Fast and the Furious), Gabriel Byrne (Miller's Crossing), Drea de Matteo ("The Sopranos"), and John `Motormouth' Leguizamo (Spawn, Land of the Dead).
Hawkes plays Sgt. Jake Roenick, a burnt out, pill popping, police officer/alkie bum (he likey the booze...he likey it a lot) hiding behind desk after a previous incident with some Serbian mobsters resulted in an injury to himself along with the skagging of a couple of undercover cops under his command (I bet Roenick will have to come to terms with his various `demons' at some point later in the movie). The precinct he's currently working, in Detroit's inner city, is scheduled to be shut down, operating only a skeleton crew on New Year's Eve, including Sgt. Roenick, sassy secretary Iris Ferry (de Matteo), and the world's oldest policeman Jasper O'Shea (Dennehy). Should be a quiet night, as most all responsibilities have been transferred to other precincts, but trouble arrives in the form of a bus carrying some prisoners, diverted to Precinct 13 due to worsening weather (winter in Detroit is about as fun as it gets). Among the felonious assemblage is Marion Bishop (Fishburne), a preeminent crime figure in town, and most likely the one the heavily armed, masked men who show up shortly afterwards, surrounding the building, are after. Discovering all communications to and from the outside world are cut off, Roenick makes an uneasy alliance with the prisoners, to which they manage to fend off an initial assault...but tensions are high within the precinct as trust doesn't come easy, and tempers flare up as the realization that their chances of surviving are about as good as that of a one legged man in an ash kicking contest (meaning not very good). Who are these highly organized, well-armed, masked men intent on killing everyone inside the precinct, including Marcus? The initial thought was they were Marcus' men, coming to rescue him, but that seems not the case, now...
In terms of technicality (a well put together movie) and performances (in general), this film would probably rate pretty high, as there's quite a lot of effort from many different sources here (check out the various `making of' featurettes). In terms of predictability (in both the story and characters), along with my bias towards Carpenter's original film (and story), this movie would rate pretty low...combining these two factors together, my overall attitude by the end was that of `meh'...what's `meh'? `Meh' means had I gone my entire life never seeing this movie, I wouldn't have missed anything, but as far as spending just over an hour and a half watching, there are a lot less meaningful things I could have spent my time on, like removing the lint from my belly button, or practicing my animal grooming techniques on various neighborhood animals (ever see a yellow Lab with an afro?). The main difference between this film and the original, in terms of the story, is the outside antagonistic element that drives the various degrees of conflict within the precinct. In the original this was comprised of a somewhat enigmatic, multi-racial mass, intent on exacting revenge on some poor schmuck who happened to wrong them, and had since sought refuge in the soon to be closed, skeleton crew, precinct. In this remake, the antagonists are a bit different, a lot more organized, and a lot more defined, and that's where I perceived the most noticeable flaw, in defining that which should have remained undefined. Part of the story here relates and illuminates this antagonistic factor, destroying the supernatural element present in Carpenter's original film. Ah well, I suppose it could have been worse...the performances are very strong, even if the characters seem somewhat generic, and the sets and special effects outstanding (there was a good eye towards detail, even though it may not have leaned towards the factual side of things). One thing I did noticed was there seemed to be an awful lot of head shots...lots of people getting it right between the eyes...also, watch as Hawkes pulls off a `Die Hard' moment, piercing an attacker through an ocular orifice with an icicle...throw in a knife in the jaw, a phosphorus, flash grenade in a pocket, and you've got some pretty interesting bodily injury sequences (things that make you go `ewww'). As far as the performances, I thought most did well, but I was unsure the point of Maria Bello's character of police `shrink'...she was easy on the eyes, but seemed to have little other reason for being in the movie as her `relationship' with Hawkes' character never amounts to anything. As far as Jeffrey 'Ja Rule' Atkins, well, he dies pretty good (what more could you ask for here? Well, a better actor, I suppose, but, like I said, he dies good)...the film moves along at a pretty good clip, but stumbled badly in two aspects, one being the persistent and obvious notion that one of those inside the precinct was a traitor, working with those outside (the offender might as well have been wearing a neon sign stating `RAT'), one whose identity the filmmakers tried to obscure later on through the lame tactic of introducing a relatively new character into the group, and the second being the incredible lull between the initial attack from those outside and any subsequent attacks...they made an excuse about waiting for an `AV'...I'm no expert on acronyms, but I assumed this meant armored or assault vehicle (perhaps a JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank...look it up, as you can buy one on the Amazon website), but given their capabilities and time constraints (the night time is the right time), I would have assumed more in terms of actual assault. All in all an enjoyable, exciting, sometimes violent diversion, but lacking and flawed when compared to the original...
The anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) looks really sharp, and the audio, available in both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1, comes through exceptionally well. In terms of extras, there's four featurettes that go through various aspects of production, a HBO featurette titled `Caught in the Crosshairs', deleted scenes with optional director's commentary, and an audio commentary track with the director Richet, writer James DeMonaco, and producer Jeffrey Silver. Also included are some previews for other DVD releases including Unleashed (2005), White Noise (2005), and Seed of Chucky (2004).
Cookieman108
By the way, a remake is something unoriginal Hollywood types pass off on us when a sequel isn't feasible...and then, of course, there's always adapting old television shows into movies...
...more info - Loved it!
I was surprised how much I got sucked into this movie! I have not seen the original nor do I care to, it has not spoiled my movie watching experice, I have imagination and a brain, I can enjoy this withouth knocking it down.
I loved the suspence that kept up through out the whole movie and the familiar characters I liked in previous movies, Hawke, Fishburne, Byrne, Bello to name a few, and how the loyalties between the good cops, bad cops and criminals kept changing through out the movie.
It was fast paced, scarry at times, and you really couldnt guess who was getting killed off when, and they were not sparing the famous faces either.
The plot was simple yet entertaining; bunch of people inside the precinct who were fending off good guys gone bad, and try to sit quiet when your own citys defenses are knocing you down.
I really had a great afternoon watching this during my Christmas Day off, even my family loved it, and you're talking about a bunch of fussy people!...more info - Great gunplay
Suppressed HK G36s, need I say more?? The only thing that many people complained about was the fact there was a forest outside of Detroit, MI according to the film. Contrary to popular belief, Michigan has quite a lot of trees although I am not sure if the region depicted in the film was heavy with forests....more info - GREAT ACTORS, GOOD PLOT, GOOD MOVIE!!
everything is good, ethan hawke is a nice actor, laurence fishburne is a great man. his acting is real and he gives you a lot more than you bargained for. excellent job, drea de matteo, ja rule, john leguizamo crazy vato loco. seems to bring that bit of spice in just about any movie his in. talented and doesn't hold back, the action, the suspense, the whole thing. the criminals, the bad guys, and the cops, the good guys, or are they? this gave me my action fill, good has to unite with the bad to make it through. they're held up in this police station. kind of like hostages because the bad, or is it good, guys won't let them escape with their lives. all hell breaks loose and these criminals have to learn how to get along with these cops in order to find a way out before the nights over. i really recommend it. ...more info - not hd's fault
this is a decent movie, but not one that makes hd shine. its shot dark and grainy so it doesnt look very impressive in hd, but its not the movies fault. although the hd surround sound makes it decent...more info - They are coming to blow Laurence Fishburne away
I did not see John Carpenter's original version of "Assault on Precinct 13," but that did matter to my enjoyment of the 2005 remake. I was paying attention so I knew what the set up was, both inside and out of the precinct, as we went along. But being ahead of the characters on this one does not do you much good because there are ample twists in James DeMonaco's script (I made the mistake of announcing right before the first assault the two characters I was sure would survive all the bullets and I was half-right, which is a polite way of saying I was half-wrong).
It is New Year's Eve in Jean-Francois Richet's film and it has started to snow heavily. Precinct 13 officially closes at the stroke of midnight and filling up the last boxes are Sergeant Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke), who has been hiding behind a desk ever since an undercover gig went horribly bad and he was wounded while his two partners were killed, grizzled veteran Jasper O'Shea (Brian Dennehy) who is always talking about retirement, and secretary Iris Ferry (Drea de Matteo) who is always talking about sex with bad boys. Jake would rather talk about sex than his feelings about what happened before with Alex Sabian (Mario Bello), the department shrink who happens to stop by on a snowy New Year's Eve to take another crack at Jake's psyche.
Then a Detroit police transport bus shows up with a quartet of prisoners, unable to get to the prison because of the storm and a highway accident. There is Beck (John Leguizamo), who will not shut up, Anna (Alisha Hinds) a girl with a crew-cut who proclaims her innocence, Smiley (Ja Rule), a counterfeiter, and Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne), the most notorious criminal in the city, who has just been arrested for murdering an undercover cop under suspicious circumstances. So when a couple of guys with guns break into the precinct and everybody is yelling these are Bishop's men coming to get get, we do not buy it. After all, as soon as Bishop saw them he hid behind a wall. Things are just beginning to get interesting.
"Assault on Precinct 13" is an action film where the human element is really more interesting once Jake figures out that to survive the night he needs everybody to help out, which means not only the prisoners but the women. Everybody gets a gun in this one, but you know full well that not everybody can be trusted with one. Furthermore, Jake is fully aware that Bishop is the smartest and deadliest person there, but this movie is all about making the best of a bad situation that keeps getting worse. The death of one character really puts the way this is going to play out into question, and I liked the note on which the film actually ends once we finally get down to the inevitable confrontation between the two main characters. Not great, but certainly an enjoyable action picture with a minimum amount of stupidity on the part of the characters once you accept the idea the die is cast and it is all or nothing for the bad guys. That is a pretty good recommendation for this genre....more info - Stay away from this one
The plot is just stupid: a crooked police department try to kill a criminal and an entire police precinct (one of their own) that guards said criminal.
And it get worse. Police tactics from SWAT entries to sniper shooting are so wrong. How about just walk in the precinct, dressed as police officers, and tale over. How about tossing the people inside a phone and talk to them. Save your money and time. Stay away. ...more info - Fight for surviving!
This smart and amusing script of John Carpenter turns around a moral dilemma. When a dealer (Lawremce Fishburne) is jailed just in New Year's eve and a stormy weather gets worst, the bus in which is transported leads the hazardous prisoners to 13th Precinct. But there are obscured clouds around. A corrupt policeman (Gabriel Byrne) will do his best to eliminate the dealer and masked behind the law will try to take by assault the named precinct no matter how the prize be.
Some spectacular sequences and a kinetic rhythm confers to this thriller major scope
...more info - Overated !
It's funny right.Throughout the whole movie the convicts and or the Police have full clips at all times.It gets old after you notice it two times in a row.Your able to notice this because the clips on the MP-5 are clear , and you'll notice the clips stay full even after Larry Fishburne or Ethan Hawke unload the entire thing on 1 man.There's a few things that were realistic and pretty cool ,but the majority of the movie was cahcah.I gave it two stars for the weapons , lol....more info - POOR REMAKE OF A CULT CLASSIC
In one of the featurettes on the DVD, Star Ethan Hawke claims that this was the best script to an action film he had ever read. If this was the best that I would hate to see the worst. This remake of the John Carpenter Cult classic is ridiculous on so many levels. Suspension of disbelief? No...how about suspending rational thought and logic as the totally impossible set of circumstances that lead to the siege are among the most far-fetched ever put on film.
Lawrence Fishburne is a Detroit crime boss named Bishop who is being transported to jail along with the usual cast of two-dimensional action characters including Ja-rule As small-time crook Smiley (don't know why since he never smiles) and John Leguizamo as Beck, a crack head who is on your nerves so quickly that you pray he's killed soon.
Well on the way an accident and a fierce winter storm just happens to divert the bus to Precinct 13 which just happens to be closing down and thus just happens to have only a crew of three people and just happens to have all their communications shut down and is evidently in such a remote part of the city that citizens do not hear the thousands of rounds of gunfire and explosions taking place and call the cops. It may be Detroit, but even that's well beyond normal reason. Oh and somehow the crooks manage to interfere and knock out the cell phones as well. That's quite a trick!
Soon, some crooked cops led by Gabriel Byrne lead an attack on the precinct in order to kill Bishop before he can expose them at his trial. Ethan Hawke is Sgt. Jake Roenick, another two-dimensional burned-out cop feeling guilt over two of his partners getting killed in a shootout, eight months earlier. Along with him is Brian Dennehy who just happens to be retiring, and Drea de Matteo playing her usual smart-mouthed New Yorker...even though she's supposed to be in Detroit. Oh and Maria Bello plays a shrink working with Ethan Hawke who just HAPPENS to get stuck in the storm and has to stay at the precinct as weel. Roenick soon arms his prisoners to fight off the cops. Seemingly the cops are all former Delta Force members or Navy Seals because they're all armed to the teethe with assault rifles, night vision goggles, and flash grenades. Yet despite their overwhelming numbers and weaponry, the bad guys find themselves picked off one-by-one.
The sad thing is that this could have, and should have been a good film. But rather than handle the film with some semblance of subtlety, French director Jean-Francois Richet just tries to bludgeon watchers over the head at every moment. Extremely disappointing.
...more info - Assault on Logic
This is one remake that we really didn't need. The original, as dated as it is, could be considered the movie that made John Carpenter's career. The original, made in 1976, is not a bad movie, if you surrender yourself to Carpenter's synthesizer stylings and a plotline that defies logic. A gang of bad guys leads an assault on a police precinct, turning the whole precinct into a war zone for one night. The main problem with doing a remake of this story is that it was a difficult concept to believe in 1976, and there have been quite a few technological advances in the last thirty years. Unless they were going to do this as a period piece, it's just not the kind of story that you can do in the age of high-speed internet, PDAs, cell phones and laptop computers.
The filmmakers' solution to this was to have the whole thing take place on New Year's Eve and also to build into the plot the fact that the cops in the doomed precinct are getting ready to move to a new precinct. If that sounds like flimsy logic to you, raise your hand. So what we are treated to in the first 10 minutes of the movie are a lot of really painful scenes of exposition where characters say things like, "Seeing as how it's New Year's Eve, and I've shut down all the computers and the phone lines are down, we might as well get drunk!"
The set-up is difficult to believe, and it's almost as if the actors all know it. It's really painful to watch actors like Gabriel Byrne, Lawrence Fishburne, Ethan Hawke and John Leguiziamo struggling through this ridiculous garbage. If you can survive this Assualt on Logic, and you can suspend your disbelief in spite of overwhelming odds, you'll get to see the bad guys attack the precinct. From there, it's one long, continuous shoot-out. It is, of course, interspersed with scenes where we find out that some of the cops in the precinct are not entirely good, and some of the criminals are not entirely bad. What's most amazing is that EVERYONE in the movie gets shot right between the eyes. I'm not even kidding. Every single character gets shot right in the forehead, whether it's by close range or by sniper rifle. Admittedly, I don't know too much about shooting people, but it seems like the odds of everyone getting shot right between the eyes are a bit of a longshot. Ah well, it gave the director plenty of opportunity to show actors staring off into space with a tiny red hole in their forehead. Maybe the director was trying to make a statement.
On the whole, the production values are good and the cinematography isn't bad. It's just a completely ridiculous scenario, badly executed with dialog that would get cut from the worst soap opera. The actors, talented as most of them are, seem to know that they've signed on to be in a turkey, so they turn in performances that feel stale and uninspired. In the end, you just have to wonder if we really needed a remake of this movie, especially when it turned out to be so much worse than the original....more info - What a Surprize
Man,this movie caught me off guard.
This was very intertaining from the first scene to the last.
Plus the cast is really good.
Laurence Fishburne is terrific !
I saw this as a rental,now I will buy it.
...more info - STICK TO THE ORIGINAL.
The original is a 100 times better, it was gritty and the action was tense. I am surprised so many good actors wasted their time on a pitifully inferior remake. The story is contrived and obvious. Watching this movie may cause your brain to shut down.
...more info - good for a plane ride
This is not a review of the movie per se , but more so for the umd product. I got a new copy through Amazon for $10 , which included the shipping costs. The movie is not enhanced for the 16 x 9 format so you get the original 2.4 : 1 aspect ratio. This means the black bars at top and bottom of screen. On the medium or wide shots the details are hard to see as the action takes place at night and the movie uses a blue color palette. Otherwise , sound and video are very good. Disc includes previews , deleted scenes and three making of featurettes.
Overall , it was worth the 10 bucks ...more info - Don't they make good movies anymore?
Answer: Not many! It seems that 9 out of 10 movies I watch lately, suck! This wasn't the worst of the bunch, but it still wasn't that good. I thought the story to this movie was stupid, and unbelievable.The movie had some decent action here and there, but the fact that 90% of the movie took place in one spot,made it boring. The only good thing I can really say about this movie was, that the sound quality was very good. If you have a good home theater system, you'll be impressed with the sound. Worth a rent I guess, definitely not worth buying. One final thought, the woman from the Sopranos does not look anything like an Iris, she looks more like a Mary or Tina....more info - Better Than the Original
As much as I love John Carpenter, his first film was a low budget affair that barely scraped by. No explanation was given as to why the psycho gang kept trying to kill the police, or why they didn't die from all the gunshots. This version actually has a story to back up all the action, and pulls it off surprisingly well. Lawrence Fishburne's character embodies the American gangster like no one else could. The reveal that cops are actually attacking them is one well conceived and well executed. The main leads are well cast, although you eventually want to scream, "don't do that" when they each meet their downfall. Overall, a fun action movie that is actually better than the original, and for a John Carpenter movie, that's saying a lot....more info - I want 105 minutes of my life back
Absolute garbage. Hard to believe Ethan Hawke could be involved in this after his stellar performance in Training Day. Completely inconsistent plot. It hurts my brain to even try to understand how this train wreck got made....more info - The action sequences were eye-citing as well as heart-warming in some ways!
Recently, I watched two great cop action movies on cable television;
1) 'Assault on Precinct 13', starring Ethan Hawk, Laurence Fishburne & Gabriel Bryne;
2) '16 Blocks' starring Bruce Willis, Mos Def, & David Morse;
Both movies shared a common theme: a bunch of rogue cops vs one good cop, with explosive, pulsating action sequences.
The first movie was supposed to be a remake of an earlier movie made during the seventies & bearing the same title. I did not watch it. Nevertheless, the story in both movies came from John Carpenter, the master of horror & suspense.
I had watched many of John Carpenter's movies, which includes 'The Fog', 'The Thing', 'Ghosts on Mars', 'Village of the Damned', just to name a few.
(I also read that the earlier movie was based on Howard Hawks' cowboy movie entitled 'Rio Bravo', made in the late fifties & starring John Wayne, Dean Martin & Ricky Nelson. No wonder, as I come to think about it, there was some notable resemblance in the plot.)
In the first movie, a pill-popping police sergeant, Jake Roenik (played by Ethan Hawke) inside a police station that was about to be closed down for good, had to rally the ragtag group of police personnel as well as prisoners in the station to protect themselves against a massive assault on New Year's Eve.
A bunch of rogue cops, led by Capt Marcus Duvall (played by Gabriel Bryne) & equipped with high-tech weaponry, had surrounded the station. They had planned to kill all of the station's occupants in order to keep their deception within the ranks.
As a matter of fact, one of the station prisoners was a drug dealer as well as a cop killer, Marion Bishop (played by Laurence Fishburne), who was actually their prime target, as they feared that he might finger them when he went to court the next day.
In the second movie, a burnt-out aging police detective, Jack Mosley (played by Bruce Willis), was assigned the unenviable task of transporting a fast-talking, small-time crook, Eddie Bunker (played by Mos Def) from jail to a courthouse 16 blocks away. The setting was New York city.
However, along the way, he learned that the crook had made a prior deal with the District Attorney's office & was supposed to testify against Mosley's colleagues, spearheaded by another police detective, Frank Nugent (played by David Morse). One of the colleagues was accidentally shot in the leg by Mosley during a skirmish.
As a result, practically the entire NYPD wanted him & the crook dead. Mosley had to choose between loyalty to his colleagues & protecting the witness.
Both movies also shared an intriguing twist to the ending part of the story, which really made the movies worth watching. You just have to go & watch both movies to know what I meant.
In the movies, both good cops had to use their anticipatory wits to outsmart & outmanoeuvre their rogue colleagues in order to stay alive.
For me, as a fan, these were two cop action movies without the intervention of CGI, & the action sequences were eye-citing as well as heart-warming in some ways.
In fact, in the first movie, I was very impressed by Bishop's philosophy of 'self-preservation' & also, Roenik's unwitting extension of professional courtesy to Bishop, as dictated by the course of events, while the latter reciprocated Roenik's kind gesture at the end of the movie. Sometimes, your enemy is your best friend.
In the second movie, Mosley did not believe that crooks could change or turn a new leaf. Bunker proved him wrong by sending him a birthday cake, plus a picture of his new cake shop in Seattle, with Mosley's name on it.
...more info - Better than the original
Well, it does not have the killing at the ice cream truck -- but beyond that, the new Assault is a vast improvement on Carpenter's effort. Granted, Carpenter's retains a certain cheesy charm (see ice cream truck) -- but the passage of time has not been kind, wooden acting, wooden lines, bad hair and low budget. In contrast the mew Assault has a big budget, has an A-list cast for a B movie. Not a guarantee for success, granted, but director Richet pulls off the remake easily. Carpenter, to be fair, made the most of C-list actors for a B movie. And there are script improvements, with the bad guys as rogue cops rather than Carpenter's voiceless zombie-like gang members (Carpenter's soundtrack was better though). A sucessful remake in every way....more info - pretty good
This is a pretty entertaining movie that has its moments. Haven't seen John Carpenter's original, which I'm sure is thoroughly enjoyable like his other movies, such as Escape From New York. There's no element of campiness in this remake, but it may be lacking that extra element of catchiness that would warrant a wholehearted endorsement. Good performances from Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Byrne, and John Leguizamo, especially the latter, who stands out in a positive way. The seige mentality element of the story adds to the appeal. Definitely worth a look. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health....more info - Best Action Flick In Long Time
These other reviewers are way to tough on this. Frankly, it's the best action flick I've seen in many years - bar none. If you like movies that keep you on the edge of your seat during the entire story, buy this movie. It's a keeper....more info - It's an okay movie.
Assault on Precinct 13 is about a Mafia lord who has had extensive contacts with the police in the department relating to his crime spree. The police want to kill him before he is able to talk about all of the police officers who have been in on the deal. The movie revolves around a thrilling crime scene where police officers--who act like mobsters--seek to enter a police department that is not guarded extensively. Those inside are willing to do everything it takes to guard the place, but there is a problem: I won't reveal it, but it is an incredible ending. ...more info - ASSAULT REMAKE RESPECTS ITS B-MOVIE ORIGINS
Detroit's Precinct 13 has seen better days. An aging relic, the outpost on the outside of town doesn't need an extreme make-over, it needs the business end of a wrecking ball. Before the walls of Precinct 13 come tumbling down, the barest of skeleton crews must spend New Year's Eve babysitting what remains of the plaster prison.
As a furious snow storm rips through the dark night outside, battle-scarred sergeant Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke), his police-appointed shrink Alex (Maria Bello), secretary Iris (Drea de Mateo) and retiring veteran Jasper O'Shea (Brian Dennehy) make the best of a bad situation.
Things go from bad to worse when a bus escorting crime lord Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne) and three other inmates is forced to make an emergency pit stop, followed by a group of assassins hell bent on making sure Bishop never leaves Precinct 13.
As far as remakes go, Assault on Precinct 13 manages to create and sustain an element of suspense, a tough nut to crack when you consider that director John Carpenter's original 1976 B-movie was a remake of John Wayne's "Rio Lobo," Rio Bravo," and to some extent, "El Dorado." Even though the plot is as old as the hills, and the characters have been reduced to types for economical reasons, French director Jean-Francois Richet still manages to pump up the action.
Writer James DeMonaco wisely tinkers with the formula, thus changing the dynamic. DeMonaco attempts to humanize the characters, giving them back story and some degree of purpose, but most of this is posturing. Hawke's Roenick is still recovering from a botched operation, inner turmoil that will undoubtedly come into play as the night progresses. As the enigmatic Bishop, Fishburne commands the screen, the sort of person you want on your side, even if he is a criminal. Bello's shrink does anything but, rising to the occasion when push comes to shove.
Then there's Dennehy's O'Shea, ready for retirement, the crusty old timer who feels as useless as his former Precinct and would love nothing more that one last hurrah. All paint-by-number creations, until you get to John Leguizamo's motor-mouthed addict, who constantly paints outside the lines. Leguizamo is so effective, so unnerving and irritating you want to paint a target on his back and shove him into the line of fire.
Occasionally implausible, Assault on Precinct 13 respects its B-Movie origins while upping the ante to satisfy a new generation of action fans. They won't be disappointed....more info
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