By Joe Weindl
\nSpecial to the Saipan Tribune<\/p>\n
When making a \u201cgritty\u201d crime drama or a \u201cgritty\u201d action movie, there are a few simple rules that need to be followed. First and foremost, the hero of the story must be a police officer who\u2019s struggling\u2014mentally\u2014to cope with the loss of his former partner. Or maybe he\u2019s lost his wife. He drinks bourbon for breakfast, and he has to have a dog. Secondly, the villains of the story must never go to jail; they would rather die, and of course they will do just that, before credits roll. Dirty cops are especially vulnerable to instant karma, which by the way, is Rule #3: There must always be at least one dirty cop, in order for a movie to qualify as \u201cgritty.\u201d Last but not least, anyone who announces their retirement is doomed.<\/p>\n
Screenwriter James DeMonaco (The Negotiator, Jack) knows the rules, and he adheres to them quite faithfully in Assault on Precinct 13, the \u201cgritty\u201d action-movie remake of an old John Carpenter film. But that doesn\u2019t necessarily make it a bad movie.<\/p>\n
While watching Assault on Precinct 13, I kept arguing with myself. My inner intellect couldn\u2019t help but notice that this isn\u2019t exactly the most cerebral of movies, while my inner dude kept thinking, \u201cShut up, nerd; that was pretty sweet.\u201d Even though the script is full of one-dimensional characters and tired action-movie clich\u00e9s, it is, nevertheless, an alright shoot-\u2018em-up action flick, so long as you don\u2019t expect anything more than just that.<\/p>\n
In Assault on Precinct 13, Ethan Hawke (Training Day, Taking Lives) stars as Jake Roenick, the aforementioned alcoholic cop with abandonment issues. Lawrence Fishburne (The Matrix, Mystic River) costars as Marion Bishop, a super-bad, ultra-powerful gangster held captive at the titular Precinct 13, of which Roenick is in charge. Rounding out the cast are a bunch of lesser-known actors who shall remain lesser-known, a pair of skilled actors who deserve better roles than they landed (John Leguizamo and Gabriel Byrne), and a rapper (Ja Rule) who continues to show that his acting abilities are nowhere near his talents as an emcee. Actually, I take that back\u2014he can\u2019t rap either.<\/p>\n
Snowed-in at Precinct 13, on New Year\u2019s Eve, stranded in the middle of an industrial district in Detroit, Roenick and his police-buddies must band together with Bishop and a few other prisoners to survive the night, when a gang of crooked cops declares war on all inside, to keep Bishop from testifying against them. Uncomfortable friendships will be formed and, of course, there will be betrayals and near-betrayals. This could be interesting territory to explore, but DeMonaco is either not interested in or incapable of piecing together a story that might touch anybody\u2019s nerves or perhaps let them think a little.<\/p>\n
On the plus side, Hawke and Fishburne both turn in strong performances. The gangster Marion Bishop, who\u2019s impossibly cool and super-invincible, is made believable through Fishburne\u2019s acting, and Hawke does a great job illustrating the distress that must be felt in the midst of a gunfight. Unfortunately, I\u2019ll have a difficult time ever seeing Fishburne as anybody other than Morpheus, much like Alec Guinness will always be Obi Wan, and Patrick Stewart will always be Jean-Luc Picard, but that\u2019s really my fault, not any of theirs.<\/p>\n
French director Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Richet, a newcomer to Hollywood, does decent, if not particularly Oscar-worthy, work, and is lucky enough to have a relatively accomplished composer on-hand (Graeme Revell \u2013 The Chronicles of Riddick, Walking Tall), capable of banging out a workable, if not particularly Oscar-worthy, soundtrack.<\/p>\n
Assault on Precinct 13 will be forgotten in a year or two, but considering the fact that it\u2019s in a genre full of duds, I\u2019d say it\u2019s an okay movie, by comparison. Besides, it\u2019s the middle of January, the weather\u2019s been stinking, and what else are you going to watch?<\/p>\n
(Comments? E-mail Weindl at joewatchermovies@yahoo.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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