Assault on Precinct 13

I've never seen the original version of Assault on Precinct 13, directed by John Carpenter, or the movie that it was based on, Rio Bravo, by Howard Hawks. I did see the third incarnation, released in 2005 and directed by Jean-Francois Richet, and apparently there are diminishing returns, because this film is routine and frequently muddled.

It's New Year's Eve in Detroit, and a snowstorm is blowing. Ethan Hawke plays the desk sergeant in a precinct house that is being shut down, so it's short-staffed and without a lot of equipment. He's damaged goods--he was an undercover cop who was involved in an incident where two of his partners were killed, so he hides in a desk job. On the evening in question, he's joined by a cop on the eve of retirement (Brian Dennehy) and a secretary who's attracted to bad boys (Drea DeMatteo).

Meanwhile, the city's biggest druglord, Laurence Fishburne, is arrested and because of the snow he and three other garden-variety criminals are brought to the old precinct. Everyone settles in for a quiet New Year's, until masked men show up trying to shoot their way in.

The difference with this film from Carpenter's is that the assault is led by bad cops, which means they have superior firepower and are even able to jam cell-phone signals. Fishburne tells Hawke that it's the squad led by Gabriel Byrne, because they were on the take, and know Fishburne will testify against them. The skeleton crew, including the prisoners, arm themselves and try to last until dawn.

There are a lot of good actors in this piece. Including those mentioned, John Leguizamo is a junkie, and Maria Bello is Hawke's police department psychologist (turns out she's neurotic--surprise!) There are a few surprises, as one character dies that I didn't expect to and the cliche about a cop who's about to retire is turned on its ear. Otherwise, though, it's a standard-issue action film. Some of the action sequences are well-handled, but others are murky, and I'm not quite sure what happened.

Also, a movie set in Detroit is sure to feature a squalid, crime-ridden face. But is the city so forlorn that a massive strategic strike against a police station, complete with rocket-launchers and a helicopter, would go unnoticed? And if Byrne were successful, how exactly would he explain a bunch of dead bodies shot by police weapons? There's a plot hole in this film a mile wide.

The best part of this film is Fishburne's performance. He plays a bad-ass who is always calm under pressure, and forms alliances for his own self-preservation, but also has the shred of a moral code. It's a shame he didn't have a better script.