Assault on Precinct 13

Wanna be in a movie?  We just need a headshot.
by Christian De Matteo

 Solid

So, uh, what's the title of this review all about?  Well, I will start out what will be a very favorable review with one of my few complaints.  I love a good headshot in an action movie.  I will never forget the experience of being 14 or 15 years old and watching some character in Tom Beringer's Sniper, get a bullet through his rifle scope and right in his eye.  NICE.  Seeing a bad guy, or hell, even a good guy, take a bullet square in the old thinking cap: priceless.

The beauty in this however, lies in the fact that a perfect shot like that is rare, and must be reserved for dramatic moments in a film.  I think, at last count, that maybe two of the ten to twelve people who get offed close to camera in Assualt were shot directly in the head, regardless of scenario.  After a while, just a little silly.

Other than this, Assualt on a Precinct 13 is very, very cool.  Something has happened in this country that, while making a good comedy used to be quite difficult for us, making action and horror have become the bane of Hollywood's existence.  Whether it's a Vin Deisal snorer (Pitch Black excluded) or a Steven Seagal embarrassment, we can't seem to pull it off.  Assault makes it work.  Taking cues from John Carpenter's masterful original, adding in some Die Hard finesse, and keeping the twists coming so that the action isn't the only draw, Director Richet has made a very watchable, often suspenseful, usually exciting and thanks to John Leguizamo, funny action movie.

Bravo.  With a stellar cast including the powerhouse Brian Dennehey in all of his "being a dick" glory, and Ethan Hawke, channeling again his inner tough guy with the sensitive exterior, Assualt manages to create an action world where the ending not only matters, but is not guaranteed, populated with people you not only will form an opinion of beyond good guy/bad guy, but whom you'll care about and be stridently rooting for.

So if you can suspend your disbelief (nobody manages to hear this huge firefight attack on a police headquarters because there's a snowstorm going on) less than most action movies ask of you, and ignore the fact that everyone in this movie can shoot a man dead in the head at 400 feet even if he's in a speeding car in a snowstorm, you'll have one of the better times you've had at an action movie in a helluva while.

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