Assault on Precinct 13 (Widescreen Edition)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Drea de Matteo, Ethan Hawke, Gabriel Byrne, Laurence Fishburne, Maria BelloBrand: UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Serbo-Croatian (Original Language); French (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-05-10
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Assault on Precinct 13 (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: STAND AND DELIVER
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Summary of Assault on Precinct 13 (Widescreen Edition)
A POLICE SERGEANT MUST RALLY THE COPS AND PRISONERS TOGETHER TO PROTECT THEMSELVES ON NEW YEAR'S EVE, JUST AS CORRUPT POLICEMAN SURROUND THE STATION WITH THE INTENT OF KILLING ALL TO KEEP THEIR DECEPTION IN THE RANKS.Action buffs will have a fine time with the spray of bullets, shattering glass, and pyrotechnic silliness that makes up the bulk of Assault on Precinct 13. Updated from the little-known cops-and-robbers classic John Carpenter made in 1976 (two years before he made his name with Halloween), this high-concept thriller is mostly a lowbrow kill-fest, and is very happy with itself for being so efficient in both categories. A decrepit police station on its last night before retirement--New Year's Eve, no less--plays unexpected home to a gang of criminals who become snowbound in the basement lockup. Another mysterious gang of people who stealthily gather in the blizzard outside want one of the particularly nasty criminals (Laurence Fishburne) dead, and they'll take the rest of the precinct down too, by golly. The odd lot of characters trapped inside include a burned-out sergeant (Ethan Hawke), a sexpot secretary (post-Sopranos Drea de Matteo), an even sexier police psychologist (Maria Bello), and various other good guys and bad guys who variously go down in blazes of guts, glory, bullets, and fire. Hawke and Fishburne are opposite sides of the coin: the law, and the bathroom scale. Their need to partner in order to survive the guns outside is the movie's moral conflict, and both actors chew on Precinct 13's peeling walls and scuffed floors to drive the point home every chance they get. Obvious filmmaking fakery abounds in everything from the irksome snowstorm, frequent gunshots to the head, and a shadowy forest that conveniently presents itself in an industrial section of Detroit for the climactic showdown. No matter, this Assault is for non-thinkers who want blood and gunpowder, with no messy slowdowns for logic, please.--Ted Fry
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