CS Daily Archive > Weekend Read > 01/21/05

Assault on Characterization

By jim paraday

A remake of John Carpenter's cult classic, this story of cops and convicts forced to defend an aging police precinct against a violent siege provides plenty of slam- bang for your buck, but not much depth.

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)

Written by James DeMonaco
Based on the 1976 film by John Carpenter

Based on John Carpenter's 1976 thriller, this update sees physically and emotionally scarred Detroit police Sergeant Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) heads up a small crew of cops closing up the old precinct on New Year's Eve. When a police transport carrying convicts (including cop-killing drug baron Marion Bishop, played by Laurence Fishburne) gets caught in a blinding snowstorm, it's diverted to Roenick's station for the night -- only to find themselves and the precinct's remaining personnel surrounded by a lethal and well-armed team of masked gunmen. Now cops and cons must band together to fend off a bloody assault, and try to survive till dawn.

Directed by Jean Francios Richet from a script by James DeMonaco (The Negotiator), Assault on Precinct 13 does little to reinvent Carpenter's gritty low-budget classic, instead paying nostalgic tribute to the genre and the original's hard-edged era. The updated Assault on Precinct 13 borrows from Seventies' cop thrillers to give the film an engaging, semi-nostalgic atmosphere within a modern- day action foundation.

Gone is Carpenter's L.A. backdrop and street gang mentality, replaced with a cop-against-cop storyline set in Detroit on the stormy, snow-bound eve of a new year. Eight months after Roenick's fatal mistake led to the death of his teammates, the haunted cop now hides from the pain behind a desk, popping pills and receiving therapy from beautiful psychologist Alex Sabien (Maria Bello). Here, as in many cases in the film, there's a solid character foundation ripe with potential but the script underachieves in providing emotional substance.

Assault is about one thing -- the titular siege -- and the characters suffer for it. Unfortunately, for characters holed up in a tiny building uncertain if they'll live to see the light of day, we're not shown many true human reactions to their almost certain impending death; emotion fails to penetrate ego in order to reveal their identities as human beings.

The film also suffers from a number of plot holes, most notably centering around larger- than-life events that go virtually unnoticed in a city of millions, even taking into account the worst storm of the year. And then there's the fact that one character's resolution -- and possible implication in attack -- is never answered (almost as if that scene is still on the cutting room floor), further adding to the array of bullet holes in the story's logic.

Assault does pleasantly echo some of The Negotiator's conflict and intensity, and the film doesn't hold back in delivering some dazzling gun-toting action moments. In essence, we're left with a "Who's going to get it next, and how?" action template. When the bodies start piling up, DeMonaco lets the characters have it with a modern-day efficiency and abruptness. In one particular scene, an unexpected shot to the head reminiscent of Pulp Fiction, draws gasps from the audience. Add in a thoughtfully amoral antagonist (Gabriel Byrne), Bishop's intelligent and sometimes sympathetic antagonist, along with a quirky supporting cast -- John Leguizamo's conspiracy-spouting Beck, Ja Rule's Smiley always referring to himself in the third person -- and you have a decent recipe for entertaining action, solid acting, with a minor whodunit twist.

The remake of John Carpenter's cult classic doesn't reinvent the genre or the original film, with the end result centering on the nightlong siege and the knee- jerk reaction of its characters. Although there are enough rounds in its chamber to turn a boring Saturday into a nostalgic action-packed event, Assault on Precinct 13's characters have all the dimension of paper silhouettes on a firing range.

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
Rogue Pictures
Rated R; 109 min.

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Jim Paraday is a freelance writer from parts unknown who is currently working on a variety of scripts. Jim has attended numerous filmmaking workshops and screenwriting seminars across the country and is an avid film and television fan. He is actively pursuing a career as a professional screenwriter and hopes that once he breaks into the business, he can finally trade in his ancient typewriter for a modern computer.

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