Assault on Precinct 13 Comments

RE: Assault on Precinct 13 Comments

Forget the original, and watch this

Jean-François Richet gives us a modern update to John Carpenter’s original film, which besides similar plots and names, really have nothing in common.

Laurence Fishburne dominates the screen as a cop killer, Marion Bishop, who is arrested and put on a bus to go to a prison, but when the bus almost breaks down because of a New Years Eve blizzard, they are forced to stay at Precinct 13, which is closing down in a couple of days and only has 3 officers working the shift. Those three officers are Sgt. Joe Roenick, who has a troubled past (played nicely by Ethan Hawke, who also dominates the screen.) Sgt. Jasper O’Shea, who is retiring the next day, (very well played by Brian Dennehy.) Also, a very hot officer, Iris Ferry (played by Drea de Matteo.) A civilian with the officers is Roenick’s therapist, Dr. Alex Sabian (who had some major on and off acting moments by Maria Bello) to talk about Roenick’s dark past.

Also, there are 3 other prisoners on the bus with Bishop played named Beck (played by John Leguizamo, who has some major on and off moments of acting in this.) Smiley (horribly played by Ja Rule) who is really the weakest link in this movie. Also, there is Anna (another on and off performance by Aisha Hinds.) But when corrupt cops try to break in to the precinct in order to execute Bishop because they have a corrupt deal with him and don’t want him talking, Sgt. Roenick must arm the prisoners to survive the night.

This movie was entertaining for the most part, but only a 7 out of 10 because of two major reasons. The first reason is all the prisoners acting (besides Fishburne) are very stereotyped and have horrible acting skills that really brought it down to an 8/10. Also, there are a lot of things in the movie that doesn’t make sense (all I can think of contain spoilers so I can’t say.)