Brilliant and touching

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

An isolated police precinct on the last night before it closes with a skeleton crew finds itself under siege and Ethan Hawke must lead his small group of a grizzled aging police officer Brian Dennehy, secretaries Drea de Matteo and Maria Bello, and some assorted criminals in lock-up, the main one being master criminal Laurence Fishburne, who's prison transport bus had to make an unexpected pitstop. It's a great set up and John Carpenter's original film is a true classic. Carpenter's film is a perfectly executed "siege film." That original film is worthy of a remake and I do commend sequels that dare to stray from their source material, but this one strayed too far. It has the same set up, but the precinct comes under siege from form commandos and not faceless gang members, and goes even further astray when the plot drifts into double crosses and political conspiracies. The film's worst offense is that this remake forgot to be a siege film, which is what made the original so good. It seems like the characters are constantly leaving the building and the film even ends far far away the titular precinct. Despite the film's faults, Fishburne is great, as always, and Hawke is good in the lead (he actually makes a pretty good action here). I also love anything with Maria Bello. The action is decent and the film is slickly made, even if it didn't have the claustrophobic suspense that it should have.

Even in its own right, this picture is unrealistic, jaded, and all-around silly. It wouldn't merit more than four stars. However, it is in comparison to its 1973 namesake that this scam of a movie truly gets to showcase just how abysmal it is.The original was dynamic, replete with action, and almost believable. It let the acting and plot (in that order) do the work. Even today, it would earn 6-7 stars easily. This abomination though can muster neither. The acting sucks because the plot sucks, hence the need for two hot chicks and fancy explosions. I mean, when in the first five minutes we're treated to a buxom woman with a short tight skirt, fishnet stockings, and high-heeled boots, then it ain't hard to see where we're headed. And the sexual tension between the pretty shrink and the "sarge" (who looks like somebody who would've washed out of rookie training, never mind gotten several promotions) just affirms the producers' desperation.Lastly, this picture is a time and a half as long as its predecessor. Regrettably, the added 50% is mostly used for trite, utterly forgettable dialog rather than interesting plot twists or some development of the cookie-cutter, one-dimensional characters.Bonus negative points: the ultra-P.C. script (well, for the most part). True, the main protagonist is now a Caucasian unlike in the original iteration. However, the perps are all either small-time crooks or, but of course, totally innocent of any wrongdoing. No rapists or brutal murderers here! It's Rolex counterfeiters and a victimized African-American woman who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. And the assailants are not some expendable, no-good hoodlums found only if the bottom of the barrel of society is scratched real hard; nope, they're police officers. Dozens of them. All corrupt and murderous... - and white. Boy, oh boy...

Assault on Precinct 13, which is the remake of John Carpenter's 1976 version of the same name is an entertaining action film with credible performances, cool action scenes, a nice story, and just gives you a fun time. It's not going to win any awards, but this is how you make a "B" film. I haven't seen the original so I can't compare, but this movie stands well on it's own.This film is about a cop named Jake and a few others who are about to shut down their station for good on New Year's, but when a gang of violent prisoners including a guy named Bishop arrive, they are attacked by an outside gang and these prisoners and cops must gang up together in order to survive the night.The acting is nothing special, but it's nothing bad either. Each actor gives a solid, credible performance. Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne are two respected actors and I liked them in these roles often squaring off against each other.Overall, this is a solid action film. For a mid-January release, this movie is quite good. I don't know if fans of the original will like this, but action junkies will totally dig it. It's a good old-fashioned shoot-em-up. I rate this film 8/10.

For a remake of John Carpenter's original "Assault", this was fairly well done. The acting was better than the plot/character development.The overall concept is far-fetched as there's no way so many police officers, even corrupt ones, would turn against their own so quickly & uniformly. Things fit together a bit too well. The same objective could have been successful by using a three or four persons instead of some blindly loyal army of corrupt cops. I did, however, enjoy Laurence Fishbourne and Ethan Hawke. Seems IL' Ethan has learned quite a bit since "Training Days"! On of those noticeable gaffs was the inmate transport bus that had burned most of the night yet somehow still had snow on top of it. I also didn't realize there was so much wooded area around the Detroit industrial parks. Hmmm.... Some viewers are troubled by cops becoming the antagonists and a bad guy almost becoming the protagonist. To me, I can see how corruption can grow like a cancer when left unchecked and how power/greed can divide even a police force. Innocent victims get caught in the crossfire. Though the corruption in this movie seems a bit too widespread and the overall plan too extreme, I could see where corrupt officers would see blaming an enemy force for the death of a few innocents to protect themselves would be very logical. I'd recommend this for video rental of VOD.