Film Reviews

Assault on Precinct 13

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Brian Dennehy
• Details: US/ 109 mins/ (18s).

A remake of John Carpenter's 1976 assertive if low budget thriller, Assault on Precinct 13 sees a post Training Day Ethan Hawke playing Jake Roenick, another cop in a whole lot of trouble. This time around, he's a boozy sergeant who can't get over a bust that went wrong some time previous. On New Year's Eve, the very night his station is due to close down, he's the commanding officer in precinct 13, an outpost in a tough Detroit neighbourhood. Before you can say Rio Bravo, weather conditions mean that a busload of hard assed criminals has to make a stop over at his station. Amongst their number is Marion Bishop (Fishburne), a crime lord so despised that a gang of heavily armed cops descend on the station determined to off him. Of course, as washed up as he, even Jake can't allow vigilantism to win out...
A product of its time, John Carpenter's original had an edge and grit about it - even if it looked like its entire budget was about $12. This remake's production values may be substantially higher, but it feels like a superficial glossy reproduction, replacing the unpredictability and raw tension of the original with pointless brutality. In circumstances this rarefied, there's not an awful lot that the actors can do, but neither Hawke or Fishburne seem all together bothered by the fact that they're slumming it in this limp retreading. Do yourself a favour and rent the original instead.

Review by Garreth Murphy