Jean-François Richet's Assault on Precinct 13
Assault on Precinct 13 could be a remake of quite a few action films from the past. "Pinned down on all sides" is the main dilemma our characters face and it's something we've seen before, but as the name suggests, this film is a remake of John Carpenter’s cult classic from 1976.
Set in "Motown," this Assault features Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) who is now working as a desk sergeant since a drug bust (under his watch as an undercover detective) resulted in the deaths of two of his colleagues a few months back. Jake still hasn't fully recovered from the incident and feels guilty about what happened. It's New Year's Eve and he's at Precinct 13 - which is about to shutdown for good at midnight - with a veteran officer Jasper (Brian Dennehy) and their voluptuous secretary Iris (Drea de Matteo). Across town a story starts developing as a hard-core criminal named Bishop (Laurence Fishburne) gets arrested and while he's in the process of being transported on a bus with a few other lowlifes (played by Ja Rule, John Leguizamo and Aisha Hinds), bad weather and an accident force the headquarters to make a schedule change and have the criminals stay overnight at the Precinct which is on the way. Trailing the bus all along in another vehicle however is another group of men who could possibly be either cops or criminals. Led by Marcus (Gabriel Byrne), it seems at first that they're only after the big fish but we later find out that he's only a part of their plan.
Assault on Precinct 13 is French director Jean-François Richet's fourth feature. His first three films, all made in France, dealt with the lives of inner city youth. They weren't exactly "think pieces" but rather in the face assaults if you will; the most notorious among them was his 1997 hit Ma 6-T Va Crack-er. So while this film is not a total changeover for him, it is still interesting to have a relatively new foreigner directing an American potboiler with a high-profile cast. So how did he do? For the most part, pretty well actually considering the status of the original film not to mention the ever-changing expectations of our studios and the public alike regarding what's acceptable even in an R-rated film. Richet has handled some of the key situations very credibly but no doubt that his cast has supported him very well also; it's apparent that Ethan Hawke was game for this one; Laurence Fishburne is still doing his Morpheus-shtick from The Matrix trilogy but it actually works here; both De Matteo and Leguizamo bring some life to the proceedings when things drag down a bit. However, Maria Bello as an implausibly beautiful psychologist is wasted and Gabriel Byrne's character is never fully established.
Instead of going for major action set-pieces, Richet has concentrated on minor yet highly-charged standoffs between various characters along the way, however one does wishes for a final showdown which never quite manifests itself (the ever increasing body count might be one of the reasons why). Also, out of nowhere some of the characters end up in a forest even though they weren't suppose to be very far away from the station which was very odd. The only possible explanation might be that Richet wanted to use the cool night-vision goggles at his disposal.
Overall, though, Assault on Precinct 13 accomplishes its task and you probably won't find a better action film till the summer season arrives. This ain't what Michael Mann would've done but its good enough.
Assault on Precinct 13 - Grade: B-
*2005 releases will be graded.
