*** Official ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Andres Munoz]

I just watched the original ASSAULT last night for the first time. Very cool movie. Don't know if the remake is going to capture the mood but I'm willing to give it a shot.

Now, re: the original. I had read about the scene with the little girl but it still caught me off guard.
No way in hell would they do something like that today.

Also, I really hope they use the original theme. So cool and catchy. I'm still humming it today.

BTW, I read an interview Fangoria did with the remake's director. He said he approached Carpenter and asked him for advice or suggestions. Carpenter told him to just take the basic concept and run with it in his own way. Don't make a scene by scene remake, otherwise, why even do it.

So the new director is making some changes. He's giving the bad guys a face and names (I personally thought it creepier not knowing who they were up against) and Bishop won't be the cop this time. He'll be the main prisioner.
Oh, and he also said they would throw the name Napoleon somewhere in there (Napoleon as those who watched the original know, was the main prisioner in the original ASSAULT).

 

[Matt Stone]

I've seen the trailer a few times now, and I think it looks like absolute archetypal crap. It may follow the general premise of the original, but it looks like a bunch of cop movie cliches (the dirty cop, etc) loosely coupled.

I tend to defend remakes (I love the Dawn and TCM remakes), but this one looks pretty uninspired.

 

[Grant H]

I'll definitely have to get around to seeing the original now.

 

[Kevin M]

I started a thread regarding the trailer a month ago but this thread is older so I'll re-post it here as it states my initial feelings regarding what I see in the trailer....

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Well.......HERE IT IS .......so they took the vigilante gang with silencers looking for payback on a hot summer LA evening angle and turned it into corrupt cops with silencers looking for payback on a cold winter evening and instead of a black cop & a white prisoner they are now a white cop and a black prisoner...wow...brilliant and groundbreaking changes.

Oh, but don't worry, I'm sure the lead prisoner (was Napoleon Wilson now named...is this right? Marion Bishop?) played by Laurence Fishburne will be anything but an unrepentant antihero.

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Ok now that I have seen more on the film...let's see...I can see the brainstorming session that the writers had: "We'll turn the gangs members into cops! And..and we'll turn the black cop white..and..ooooh..I know!!! We'll turn the white criminal black!! That's compelling! And....and...and we'll turn it from summer into winter!! You see!?!? It's a totally different film!!" I'm sorry but that's just goddamned lazy writing.

 

[Andres Munoz]

Just out of curiosity, Kevin M...how would you write the remake if the gig was given to you?

 

[Justin_S]

Not going to be seeing this one, not even for free. I think the original is a perfect film, and after seeing the previews for the remake, my feelings that I posted earlier in this thread were only reinforced. I'm sick of all the remakes at this point anyway.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I can't take this film seriously either, reading the description I half expected Inspector Sledge Hammer to be mentioned!

It sounds too much like the episode 'State of Sledge' from the first season of Sledge Hammer, which was a parody of Assault on Precinct 13.

 

[Brett_M]

I am a huge fan of the original. I will be seeing a sneak preview next week. My expectations are low. The cast looks intriguing, enough. I hope it's worth it.

 

[Kevin M]

Simple, I wouldn't. A pointless exercise IMO, the original was perfect for what it was, a well made low budget action thriller homage to NOTLD & Rio Bravo from a talented young director. No need to remake it with any budget that could have gone to an original script idea...and there are many out there.

Again, IMHO.

 

[Quentin]

The night this opens, I'll pop in my DVD of the original.

I saw this on the big screen at the Egyptian (the post-screening interview is on the DVD) and it was a BLAST! Great movie...unneeded remake.

 

[Chris Harvey]

I'm just young enough that this is one of the first movies of "my generation" to be remade -- now I know how older folks feel when something from the 40s, 50s, or 60s is remade.

 

[Michael Elliott]

The original Carpenter film was good but a bit overrated by some IMO. The film was already a remake and what was "changed" was borrowed from other horror films so I in no way see it as being anything original. What was original is that Carpenter was able to bring his own style and atmosphere to the film. This is something the director will have to do with this new version in order for it to be good.

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now designated the Official Discussion Thread for "Assault on Precinct 13" please, post all comments, links to outside reviews, film and box office discussion items to this thread.

All HTF member film reviews of "Assault on Precinct" should be posted to the Official Review Thread.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.


Crawdaddy

 

[Alex Spindler]

While waiting to see this when it comes out, I'd take the chance to recommend Nid de guêpes/The Nest, a very impressive take on the Assault on Precinct 13 concept. There's a region 1 DVD release which is quite nice with the original French track as well.

I'm curious to see how this turns out, but the trailers haven't been terribly encouraging. However, it will be the action sequences and the chemistry between Fishburne and Hawke that will make or break the movie, so I'm keeping an open mind.

 

[ThomasC]

The reviews aren't nearly as bad as I thought they would be, based on HTF buzz. Metacritic currently has it at 59% while Rotten Tomatoes has it at 75%.

 

[Jordan_E]

The local paper (The Seattle Times) gave it a surprising 3:star: although in the review itself the person seems to try and distance her enthusiasm a bit, as if she enjoyed it more than she cared the admit in print.

 

[Brett_M]

Great cast and cinematography but it didn't work for me. The original is more intense and "fun," if that's the right word.

I saw it for free and can't complain about that. The crowd I saw it with seemed to enjoy it although 95% of them probably had no idea it was a remake and/or had never seen the original. I suppose it's enjoyable for those who have nothing to compare it to. My hope is that some of the people who see it will check out the original.

Carpenter's music and Darwin Josten's Napoleon Wilson can't be beat, IMO.

 

[Michael Allred]

saw it opening night last night. I won't go into great detail because frankly, I just don't think it's worth it.

This remake commits a criminal sin, one that every movie should desperately avoid. It bored me. I found myself looking at my watch constantly throughout it's duration. I didnt find a single character to root for or against. There was no tension to speak of, mostly because of the change in plot - instead of the faceless/mindless horde in the original, the remake's bad guys are explained to us, there's no mystery or fear of death. The remake makes us think that if you can work out a deal, you can make it out alive whereas the original gave the characters no hope at all.

While Laurence Fishburne is a fine actor, his character is no Napoleon. Yeah, we're *told* he's a cold blooded killer, unfortunately we're not given a reason to genuinely *believe* it.

The setting is also poor, the original clearly pointed out just how desolate and empty the area around precinct 13 was. The remake? I was expecting a pizza delivery man to show up by mistake "Oops! Wrong address!" *blam blam!*

I didn't see any chemistry between the cast, the supporting players seemed to exist only to annoy the audience.

I was gravely disappointed with the remake. Obviously I loved the original and make no mistake, I am very open minded when it comes to remakes but this one failed miserably.

I now fear the proposed remake of "The Fog."

 

[John Doran]

they're not.......are they?

 

[Alex Spindler]

I thought it was better than I expected but not as good as it could be. The movie had a great intro and Ethan Hawke was far more capable than I thought initially. The snowbound concept worked to a point although I constantly had the impression that just by waiting till dawn they'd be able to freeze out their NYC cop assailants. The violence was successfully brutal at most times although there was one with a bat and a sword that was a bit too comical.

Probably the biggest problem I had with this has already been mentioned - too much information about the assailants. This was made clear in the trailer when they showed Gabriel Byrne and I was prepared for it. But as the situation continued to escalate and the body count rose on their side, I could never get over the impression that they'd never be able to stay out of jail from their assault. Calling in a SWAT team, all the dead team members, bringing in a helicopter - as cops it just seemed like their goose was cooked when the third cop was killed.

The action was overall good, although I was a bit disappointed that they often had very close quarters exchanges where both sides burned through magazines worth of ammo and didn't hit anything. There was a real mistake in not establishing that they were adjacent to some kind of forest because I thought I had run into a splicing error when the action abrubtly moved to a slow stalking among the trees.


It wasn't bad and would probably have been almost deserving of a three star rating. Not as good a remake as Dawn of the Dead, and I don't fault it too much for diverging from the Assult on Precinct 13 formula, but it had some problems with the characters, who were given some really generic traits to give them very superficial personality, and inconsistent action that are marks against it. I'd again recommend looking into Nid de guêpes/The Nest as a better remake of AoP13.