Assault on Precinct 13

Hank on this review thread has already done an excellent review of plot on the remake.

What I would suggest is that you see the original (which like so many other films which are remakes) is actually superior.

Clever plot.

Ironic plot line

suspense

Well worth a look.

Assault on Precinct 13 is a slick action film which provides us with a fairly unoriginal formula but delivers a cracking siege-based drama. The film's main player is Ethan Hawke, he plays a traumatised cop whose best days are behind him - Hawke's fall from grace is well dealt with in a powerful and graphic opening sequence to the film. Hawke's character, Sergeant Roenick, has the seemingly easy task of looking after the near defunct Precinct 13 on its final night before closure, which happens to be a snowy New Year's Eve in The Big Apple.

It looks like being an easy shift for Roenick and his small crew during the Precinct's last night of service until the torrid weather conditions lead to a few last minute inmates being caged in the station's old cells. Gangland leader Marion Bishop (played by Laurence Fishburne) had been arrested earlier that day for murdering an undercover police officer and he and some small time hoodlums are being transferred across town to a secure jail; however, New York's snowstorm puts paid to that idea, which results in the cops having no option but to lock the crooks away for the night in the nearest police department. That station is the rickety old Precinct 13 where Roenick & Co are seeing in what they hope to be an uneventful new year.

The night soon takes a turn for the worse though as the station comes under siege with the attackers wanting to break Bishop out of the slammer. Have Bishop's hoods come to save his bacon? Or has someone else got a motive to make sure that the criminal mastermind does not last the night? You'll have to watch the film to find out for yourself but what I will tell you is that this somewhat un-original premise is well-executed and the director succeeds in building up the tension at all the right points to deliver a film that really hits the spot. This film could easily have been shambolic with a lesser cast, but the group of ensemble actors involved make this a very watchable movie. Hawke is quite good as the central character. Haunted by his past mistakes, he must try and re-discover his former self in order to get his team through the ordeal under which they are placed. Fishburne, as ever, gives an accomplished, cool-as-ice performance which is the highpoint of the film. The ruthless Bishop carries a definite aura as the villain who looks after his own interests and without Fishburne in this role the film may well have suffered. The supporting cast also deliver in spades as well, with Soprano's star Drea De Matteo excelling in her silver screen debut and fellow big name Ja Rule playing a street wise felon. You should also keep an eye out for Brian Dennehey and John Leguizamo, who, as an old-school cop and motormouth junkie respectively, manage to steal many a scene in this atmospheric siege offering.