Assault on Precinct 13 (Full Screen Edition) | Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne

Assault on Precinct 13 (Full Screen Edition) | Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne | Better than the original

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Assault on Precinc...

	Assault on Precinct 13 (Full Screen Edition) Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne Universal Studios, 2005 average customer review:based on 111 reviews view larger image
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It Was Ok...

This was a pretty interesting movie..at first...I thought that the "7 head shots" were a downer a little over-board if you ask me! There was also a part in there (I don't want to go into too much detail) that really turned me off of this movie. It was one of those why did you even put this person in the movie kinda thing. But other than that it was a pretty good movie.

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.

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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.

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Don't assault my pop corn

Its a real popcorn film. Don't expect too much logic-no communication at this day and age...anyway, the solid actors made it believable. The film is action packed and does not leave you with too much room to think, or look for any logic in the plot. Ethan Hawke and Fishburn are convincing, and so is the evil Bryne. The two women are sexy-Bello and De Mateo, and that is always good eye candy in an action pack movie.
I was surprised to see such a great cast in all the roles.
Its an enjoyable action thriller, with plenty of twists and turns at the right time.
Grab your popcorn and enjoy!

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