Assault on Precinct 13 [2005] (DVD)

note: also appears in part on Flixster and The Student Room John Carpenter's original Assault on Precinct 13 was one of the best films of the 1970s: a visceral, extremely well crafted action film that also had a brain. When news of a remake spread, I wasn't too pleased, but surprisingly, this is actually a fairly fun romp if you regard it as a B-movie romp rather than anything as muscular or as substantial as the original article. The film takes place on New Year's Eve, with the oldest station in Detroit, Precinct 13, due to shut its doors at the end of the shift. There's only a small crew in the station, including Sergeant Jake Roenick (Ethan ...  Read the complete review

==="Introduction"=== Cops and criminals fight together to stay alive. That is what this movie is about. Side by side the cops and the criminals join forces to fight for their survival. The villain is one top cop that will to anything from being exposed from the wrong and illegal doings he had done in his life as a cop. "To serve and protect" is no longer their motto. ==="Cast"=== Ethan Hawke - Sgt. Jake Roenick Laurence Fishburne - Marion Bishop Gabriel Byrne - Capt. Marcus Duvall Maria Bello - Dr. Alex Sabian Drea de Matteo - Iris Ferry Brian Dennehy - Sgt. Jasper O'Shea Jeffrey "Ja ...  Read the complete review

Jake Roenick is a cop who's life has taken a downward spiral since the undercover drug operation he was working on with his partner went wrong and he was killed. It's New Years Eve and all is fairly quiet in Precinct 13, where Roenick is working for the night with a couple of other cops, gaurding the final few prisoners before transport comes to transfer them elsewhere dur to Precinct 13 being shut down shortly after New Year. All hell breaks loose though as men break into the station trying to rescue Bishop, one of the prisoners, or is it rescue on their minds? Who are the men firing guns and setting off explosions? I really enjoyed this ...  Read the complete review

Having heard alot about it but never actually having watched the original I found myself watching this 2005 remake of the 1976 John Carpenter original. The cast is pretty good with good solid actors like Laurence Fishburne and Gabriel Burne so I had high hopes for this to be a good solid action movie that would be a good way to pass a couple of hours. How wrong I was, while not being a COMPLETELY terrible movie I firstly found this movie to be very badly acted in most parts by pretty much everybody involved. The plot goes that the run-down Precinct 13 is about to be closed down and as such has a skeleton staff during new years eve and also during a bad ...  Read the complete review

I was unsure which movie to review so I thought I'd give a shot on each version... 1976 version..... Director: John Carpenter. Producer: J.S. Kaplan Writer:John Carpenter Stars: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Martin West and Tony Burton Released in 1976 this movie was shot on a small budget but still managed to create a very thrilling hour and half of action and shocks. **BRIEF PLOT** In a run down part of Los Angeles, known as the Anderson ghetto, a gang of villains, known as Street thunder, are out for revenge after some of their 'colleagues' are killed by ...  Read the complete review