Just duck, shoot or be shot, a bloody race to see who can be the last man standing, and maybe manage a wisecrack or two.
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:160
Fresh:97
Rotten:63
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: This remake has been praised by some as an expertly made B-movie, and dismissed by others as formulaic.
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: To survive the night, cops and criminals alike will have to unite and fight. A classic head-to-head showdown ignites in Assault on Precinct 13, an all-new update of the 1976 action thriller of the... To survive the night, cops and criminals alike will have to unite and fight. A classic head-to-head showdown ignites in Assault on Precinct 13, an all-new update of the 1976 action thriller of the same name. With only a few hours left in the calendar year, Precinct 13, one of Detroit's oldest precinct houses, is closing. Amid heavy snowfall and unsafe road conditions, only a few lawmen remain on duty for New Year's Eve. They are headed by Sergeant Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke), a good cop wrestling with bad memories of a fatal undercover op from the previous spring. Roenick and Precinct 13 have both seen better days. Early on December 31st, deep in the city, formidable crime lord Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne), is cornered by an undercover cop. Their ensuing struggle leaves the cop dead - and Bishop captured, by the Organized Crime and Racketeering squad that Marcus Duvall (Gabriel Byrne) runs. Bishop is handcuffed and herded onto a prison bus with several criminals: junkie Beck (John Leguizamo), hustler Smiley (Jeffrey "Ja Rule" Atkins), and gang member Anna (Aisha Hinds). But the battering snowstorm stops the bus well short of its high-security destination and strands it at the remote Precinct 13 - where, as night falls, the prisoners are temporarily incarcerated. This influx of prisoners irks Roenick, almost as much as visiting police psychologist Alex Sabian (Maria Bello) does. But Precinct 13's provocative secretary Iris Ferry (Drea de Matteo) and salty veteran cop Jasper "Old School" O'Shea (Brian Dennehy) won't let the increasing workload deter them from celebrating... ...until two masked gunmen break in and attack the guards from the bus. The gunmen are just barely beaten back, and everyone inside Precinct 13 realizes that more will come - to extract crime lord Bishop, but also armed and ready to shoot anyone and everyone else. The cops, looking to the reluctant Roenick for leadership, and the cons, looking to the steely Bishop for an angle, must join forces to live. Fortifying themselves with minimal weaponry and maximum courage, they will not go gently into the bad night. As they fight to the death, the thin lines between good and bad bleed together. Rogue Pictures presents A Why Not/Liaison Films/Biscayne Pictures Production. Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne. Assault on Precinct 13. John Leguizamo, Maria Bello, Jeffrey "Ja Rule" Atkins, Drea de Matteo, Matt Craven. With Brian Dennehy and Gabriel Byrne. Visual Effects Supervisor, Dennis Berardi. Casting by Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith, Kerry Barden. Costume Designers, Vicki Graef, Georgina Yarhi. Music Supervisor, John Houlihan. Music by Graeme Revell. Editor, Bill Pankow, A.C.E. Production Designer, Paul Denham Austerberry. Director of Photography, Robert Gantz. Co-Producer, James DeMonaco. Executive Producers, Don Carmody, Sebastien Kurt Lemercier, Joseph Kaufman. Produced by Pascal Caucheteux, Stephane Sperry, Jeffrey Silver. Based on the film written by John Carpenter. Screenplay by James DeMonaco. Directed by Jean-Francois Richet. A Rogue Pictures Release. -- © Rogue Pictures [More]
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Maria Bello, Drea de Matteo
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Maria Bello, Drea de Matteo, John Leguizamo, Aisha Hinds, Gabriel Byrne, Brian Dennehy, Currie Graham
Director: Jean-Francois Richet
Director: Jean-Francois Richet
Screenwriter: James DeMonaco
Producer: Pascal Caucheteux, Jeffrey Silver, Stephane Sperry
Composer: Graham Revell
Studio: Focus Features
Reviews for Assault on Precinct 13
Making a B-movie out of an old A-movie -- which is what Carpenter did -- is smart and fun. Making an A-movie out of an old B-movie -- which is what director Jean-Francois Richet tries to do here -- is just sort of silly.
The violence eventually overwhelms the new film's ideas -- and that's something Hawks, and even Carpenter, never let their movies get away with.
This is hardly the golden age of endings anyway (most are chosen by surveys), but this ending really is an assault -- on the brain.
Richet and DeMonaco respect the original movie while adding depth to the characters and complications to the situation.
Gleefully filled with corruption, violence, paranoia, thug-speak and mayhem. It's mad, it's bad and it's bloody. Yep, it's a bonafide blast.
For those who can stand the ultra-violent content, there's something almost enthralling about the film -- until it falls apart in the final 20 minutes.
Assault can't be called great, but it has the guts to throw all its hard-core chips into the pot, which makes it almost as much of a butt-kicking novelty as Carpenter's original.
One of the few good things to be said about Assault on Precinct 13 is that, early in the new season, we get one of the year's worst movies over and done with.
What starts out as a slightly above average action movie sinks to a merely mediocre one as the eye rolls and head shakes build.
Give Assault on Precinct 13 points for originality, if nothing else. It's the only thriller in which corrupt cops chase their victims through the woods of downtown Detroit.
Though Richet stretches believability near the end, action-movie fans should assault theaters for an entertaining stay at Precinct 13.
A movie whose greatest intent seems to be indulging in as much brutality as the MPAA will allow.
Jean-François Ríchet, the director of the new Assault, is working from a script, by James DeMonaco, that creates a handful of zingy one-note lowlifes but that hasn't updated the isolated-precinct premise in a timely or thoughtful way.
The premise may be outlandish, the action unrealistic and sometimes silly and the characters formulaic. But the movie rips and roars.
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