'Assault on Precinct 13' storms theaters

By Caroline Vaughan

To survive the night, cops and criminals alike must unite and fight in "Assault on Precinct 13," directed by Jean-Francois Richet. The line between good cop and bad cop is blurred in the new update of John Carpenter's 1976 action thriller of the same name.

The movie takes place amid a snowstorm on New Year's Eve in a tired police station on the outskirts of Detroit. Sergeant Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) plans to spend the final night in the precinct before it is closed for good brewing over his past.

That night, in the heart of the city, crime lord Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne) is cornered by an undercover operation. Amidst the struggle, he kills a cop and is captured by the Organized Crime and Racketeering squad that Marcus Duvall (Bariel Bryne) runs.

The paths of Roenick and Bishop collide when Bishop's prison bus, which also holds junkie Beck (John Leguizamo), hustler Smiley (Ja Rule), and female gang member Anna (Aisha Hind), is forced upon Precinct 13's doorstep due to unsafe road conditions. The criminals are temporarily incarcerated at the precinct for the evening.

Determined to continue their New Year's celebration, the remaining staff at Precinct 13, including seductive secretary Iris Ferri (Dre da Matteo), veteran cop Jasper "old school" O'Shea (Brian Dennehy) and visiting police psychologist Alex Sabian (Maria Bello), continue to pop the bubbly.

But the night takes a turn when two masked gunmen break in and attempt to murder Bishop and anyone in their way. The precinct slowly becomes surrounded by cohorts of the gunmen.

Determined to survive the night, all inside the station scrounge up makeshift weapons. As the night fades, so does the distinction between cop and criminal.

"Assault on Precinct 13" offers impressively executed action scenes. Graphic gunplay stole the show from the opening scene on and yet audience gasps and sighs continued on throughout the film's entirety.

Although it rendered itself a slightly predictable film, "Assault on Precinct 13" did manage to throw in enough turns of events to keep the audience guessing.

A classic "good cop-bad cop" film, this thriller offered great character interplay but lost points for tending to play into cop and criminal clichs.

"Assault on Precinct 13" opens nationwide Friday.

Grade: B

* Contact Caroline Vaughan at (408) 554-4546 or cvaughan@scu.edu.