Assault On Precinct 13

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John Carpenter based his 1976 film "Assault on Precinct 13" on the 1959 Howard Hawks´ picture, "Rio Bravo." Jean-Francois Richet remakes Carpenter´s film for the 2005 reimagining of the same name. Where Carpenter´s "Assault" held the premise that a nearly abandoned police station was under siege by a vicious street gang, Richet takes the premise that a nearly abandoned police station is under siege by a corrupt band of police. Richet does pay homage to the original story, but once you get past the idea of a precinct that is shutting down and nearly abandoned and the fact that the police and prisoners must work together, the similarities end.

The ensemble cast of "Assault on Precinct 13" includes Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Byrne, John Luguizamo, Brian Dennehy, Drea de Matteo and Ja Rule. This is quite an outstanding cast for a $20,000,000 action picture. In fact, a lot of credit must be given to director Jean-Francois Richet for making a great looking film for essentially what is a low budget. A lot of gunfire, a couple good explosions and a beautiful snowy evening (much of the film was shot in May) all cost dollars, but "Assault of Precinct 13" brings all of these elements together and looks better than many costlier films produced by Hollywood.

Borrowing elements from both Carpenter´s film and "Rio Bravo," Richet and screenwriter James DeMonaco tell the tale of a fateful New Years Eve where the skeleton crew of Precinct 13 remain to close the building down before moving to the new precinct building. Among them is Sgt. Roenick (Ethan Hawke), Jasper (Brian Dennehy) and Iris Ferry (Drea de Matteo). A dreadful blizzard moves in and forces a busload of criminals to be housed in Precinct 13 for the night. These criminals include Beck (John Lequizamo) and Smiley (Ja Rule). Most important of these criminals is Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne), a local crime lord who is involved with a large number of corrupt police officers. Internal affairs psychologist Alex (Maria Bello) had also paid Roenick a visit and is forced to remain in the Precinct until the blizzard subsides.

After Bishop and crew are locked safe and sound in the prison cells in the basement of the aging precinct building, Duvall (Gabriel Byrne) leads a large number of officers that were involved with Bishop to eliminate him before he is able to testify against them. One of the officers in the precinct thwart this first attempt to kill Bishop and the others become aware that they are under siege by fellow police officers. Outnumbered and outgunned, Roenick makes a decision to free Bishop and the other prisoners and arm them with weapons to help defend the building from those outside. Not all are supportive of this decision and tempers flare in the besieged precinct.

The ensemble cast is stellar. Hawke is very good as a sergeant who is tormented by an earlier failure as part of the force, but who must look out for those under his charge. Fishburne is awesome, as usual. From his early days in "Apocalypse Now," Fishburne has commanded the screen and continues to do so here. Lequizamo is one of the most underrated actors currently in Hollywood and his character role as Beck is a scene stealer. Matteo and Bello are lovely ladies who bring a great deal of believability to their performances. Byrne is a good bad-guy, though his screen time is fairly limited when compared to those who are confined in the cold walls of the precinct.

Richet´s version of the Carpenter story is an entertaining film. However, it lacks the raw feel of the earlier Carpenter movie. "Assault on Precinct 13" is a remake of a retelling. It follows many conventions and clichés of an action film. Everything from a "Reservoir Dogs" style Mexican Standoff, cutting the building´s power to a broken hero who must rise against his own demos can be found between the opening and closing titles. As far as remakes go, it is a good one. In no way is the film an embarrassment to the original and it pays homage to the two films that preceded it. At worst, the film is predictable, but when you´ve seen the original, you have an idea of what is going to happen.

What it may lack in originality, the film makes up for in gunfire. Once the precinct comes under fire, the film does not slow down. The pace is fast and the action gets pretty furious. There are not many moments when a bullet is not ricocheting or hitting something. Action is an important ingredient in the genre named after it. "Assault on Precinct 13" is not afraid to supply action in heavy doses once the 35 minute mark of the film passes by. After the character development, the film does its best to kill the characters it introduced. Once or twice the story tries to offer hope that somebody will make it through the siege lines. It throws in a plot twist or two to mix things up, but what it does most is rattle speakers with gunfire.

Video:
"Assault on Precinct 13" looks good on HD-DVD. The picture is remarkably clean, but considering the film is only a year old, there is not much reason for having dirt, film grain or other issues that tend to plague older pictures. I had previously seen the film on high definition cable television and have not seen the standard DVD edition. Off the top of my head, the HD-DVD does one thing incredibly well and suffers in one area. Where it excels is snow. There are a few moments that stand out in my mind where the fallen snow on the ground is so clear with the HD picture that each individual flake is visible. Where the film seems to suffer is in its black level and shadow detail. There are times where the film could be darker. The entire film takes place in a nearly abandoned precinct that has had its power cut. There are a few times when a dark blue takes the place of what should be black.

Nitpicking aside on the black levels, the transfer of "Assault on Precinct 13" shows how clean an HD title can be. I´ll be honest, the picture quality through much of the film is better than standard definition DVD, but there are other times when you could have fooled me into thinking I was watching just a DVD. Colors are beautifully reproduced and the high amount of contrast between the white snow and the black SUVs and uniforms of the attackers is handled well. The snow is bright. The black is dark (most of the time). One thing that can truly be said thus far about HD-DVD is that the picture quality is not only vivid and well detailed, but very clean.

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