Dan1863Sickles

(2013-04-29 20:33:19)

Stupendously Awful -- But Don't Miss The Festival of Bad Acting!

For the first five minutes or so this movie looks pretty good. A drugdeal is going down, and then it goes bad when somebody makes the dealeras a cop! Ethan Hawke is totally believable as a drugged up scumbag --it's when he has to play a heroic cop that the movie falls apart.Many moons later . . .The worst actors in history come together to play an assortment ofloser cops and loser criminals holed up in a condemned precinct housebeing attacked by mindless bad guys. The story is dumb, the script isclumsy, and the special effects are bad. Not even the snow looks real!All this has a tragic effect on Our Heroic Actors. They seem to knowthat this is a career-killing movie. Their shoulders slump. Their eyesglaze over. Their acting gets worse and worse as they sink into azombie state. And some of them used to be talented too! Let's meet thedoomed cast of ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13: ETHAN HAWKE. Generic pretty boy, Frankie Avalon type, adequate in lightromantic comedies. The usual leftist affectations off-screen.Wretchedly miscast as a tough cop. Keeps limping around to remind us hewas once shot in the line of duty. Really wanted to see him get slappedaround by Laurence Fishburne or Brian Dennehy. Or even by Drea DeMatteo! LAURENCE FISHBURNE. Effortlessly authentic. Genuinely talented. Seemsto know the movie is bad, but holds his own as the villain just bykeeping quiet and allowing his own personal power to overcome theabsurd script. It would take ten Ethan Hawkes to make one man like Mr.Fishburne. He can't save the movie, but he won't let it drag him down.JOHN LEGUIZAMO. Brilliant Latino actor. Also senses disaster. Triesdesperately to rave and shriek and chew scenery, hoping for redemption.Sabotaged by moronic dialog. "Us colored people should unite! Take gunsand kill the oppressor. But first I need drugs. Lots of drugs!"Offensive and insulting Latino stereotypes soon reduce him to crawlingthrough snow, begging for a bullet in the brain.JA RULE. Moderately famous rapper. Snoop Dogg without charisma. Triesto act, forced to mumble third-person asides instead. "Smiley don'tlike this. Smiley don't want to be here. Why Smiley talk to hisself?"Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg are Olivier and Gielgud compared to this guy.MARIA BELLO. Lovely blonde actress. Genuinely alluring in Mel Gibson'sPAYBACK. Played a bitter call girl who'd seen it all, and was utterlymesmerizing and believable. No more. Here she's a "psychiatrist" whodresses like a hooker and behaves like a nine-year old. "They'reshooting! Oh my God! Guns! We'll all be killed. Help me!" DREA DE MATTEO. Christopher's girlfriend in THE SOPRANOS. Apparentlyit's easy to look talented when you have the best scripts, bestdialogue coaches, best supporting cast, and best hair and nails moneycan buy. Here, as a lady cop, well, it's not fair to expect as much.Her dialog veers between "Ooh, I wish I could stop thinking about SEX"to "I want a cigarette SO BAD!" The best actress on earth couldn't havemade this work. BRIAN DENNEHY. Thirty years after FIRST BLOOD, still playing SheriffTeasle. 'Nuff said.GABRIEL BYRNE. Classy Irish actor. Doesn't want to be here. "We've gotto kill them all before sunrise. It doesn't matter if they're cops likeus. It's the only way. (SIGH) Why do I feel so empty inside?" If you can watch this movie as a comedy, it's really good. But if youare expecting a story with real action where things make sense, don'tbother.

(2013-04-29 08:24:21)

Great

This review is from: Assault on Precinct 13 (Amazon Instant Video) This movie is great from begining to end. Lots of action. You won't get board. I chose this movie because I like Lawrence Fishburn and Ethan Hawke. I have not dislikes about this movie. I would definitely recommend this movie.

Jay

(2013-04-23 16:14:06)

Circle the Wagons...or Not

Assault on Precinct 13 isn't a great action movie. It is almost watchable at times. But I have a few questions: Does anybody believe that scrawny Ethan Hawke can kick anyone's ass? Also, did one of the best villian actors ( Gabriel Byrne) get a little more screen time than a cameo for a reason? Lastly, is Laurence Fishburne doomed to play Morpheus from the Matrix movies for the rest of his life?

(2013-04-23 01:36:24)

good,,,,,, but good enough?

this movie was pretty good, i thought it wouldve been better, coach carter is better, so you should proberly go watch COACH CARTER

Jonny_Numb

(2013-04-11 05:48:47)

this remake is NOT a beautiful and unique snowflake...

...it's actually remarkably, frustratingly average.Imagine if a respected independent director, used to low budgets anddeveloped characters, were drafted by a major studio with deep pocketsto direct an action film, it would probably come out looking somethinglike this dull, pedestrian remake of John Carpenter's siege epic: Lotsof talk, lots of loopy camera angles (to symbolize 'creativity' as thehelicopter blades go 'round), and lots of art-directed death scenes(blood darkening white snow after a bullet to the head, for instance).The original "Assualt" was lowdown and gritty, suspenseful and funny,visceral and well-developed. "Assault 2005" is clichéd andconventional, manufactured and maudlin, well-acted but weak...(I couldgo on). It's yet another instance (after "Dawn of the Dead" and "TheTexas Chainsaw Massacre") of remake "Title-itis," where a familiar nameis obtained in order to break something that didn't need fixed in thefirst place (and of course make some money off of an ignorant public).Director Jean-Francois Richet doesn't show much competency toward thecraft (yes, I said 'craft') of wide-release action films. The movie isa clumsy mix of exposition scenes that stretch on far too long (theclichéd characters don't need as much justification as they are given)interspersed with action that simply isn't very thrilling (perhapsbecause the aforementioned approach is so banal); add to this franticedits that often render the action incoherent and you might findyourself being lulled into Slumberland (I kept wondering if I had justhad too long a day as I sat in my seat)...Ethan Hawke gamely leads the way through this blizzard of problems, butwithout much help from the stereotypical supporting players: JohnLeguizamo as a wisecracking speed freak; Ja Rule as a con who refers tohimself in the third person; Maria Bello as a psychiatrist who recitesmultiplication tables in times of panic; Gabriel Byrne as the steely,one-dimensional villain. Laurence Fishburne plays opposite Hawke as acrime lord who loves crossword puzzles; he's rather out of place in therole, never once coming "alive" to maybe lend some reality to theproceedings (not that anything in "Assault 2005" is grounded inreality), seemingly stuck in perpetual Morpheus-Mode.Even in the lowliest guilty pleasures served up by the JerryBruckheimer camp, you can usually find some nugget of enjoyment thatnumbs you like a vapid television show for a few hours. "Assault 2005"shoots for that hoop whilst trying to tease us with some sour braincandy, but seems so self-consciously aware of its own shallowobjectives that it drains any possible entertainment value from theproceedings. We've been there, and done that(and better, besides)...

dr_mario_rules

(2013-04-10 20:56:57)

Forget the original, and watch this

Jean-François Richet gives us a modern update to John Carpenter'soriginal film, which besides similar plots and names, really havenothing in common.Laurence Fishburne dominates the screen as a cop killer, Marion Bishop,who is arrested and put on a bus to go to a prison, but when the busalmost breaks down because of a New Years Eve blizzard, they are forcedto stay at Precinct 13, which is closing down in a couple of days andonly has 3 officers working the shift. Those three officers are Sgt.Joe Roenick, who has a troubled past (played nicely by Ethan Hawke, whoalso dominates the screen.) Sgt. Jasper O'Shea, who is retiring thenext day, (very well played by Brian Dennehy.) Also, a very hotofficer, Iris Ferry (played by Drea de Matteo.) A civilian with theofficers is Roenick's therapist, Dr. Alex Sabian (who had some major onand off acting moments by Maria Bello) to talk about Roenick's darkpast.Also, there are 3 other prisoners on the bus with Bishop played namedBeck (played by John Leguizamo, who has some major on and off momentsof acting in this.) Smiley (horribly played by Ja Rule) who is reallythe weakest link in this movie. Also, there is Anna (another on and offperformance by Aisha Hinds.) But when corrupt cops try to break in tothe precinct in order to execute Bishop because they have a corruptdeal with him and don't want him talking, Sgt. Roenick must arm theprisoners to survive the night.This movie was entertaining for the most part, but only a 7 out of 10because of two major reasons. The first reason is all the prisonersacting (besides Fishburne) are very stereotyped and have horribleacting skills that really brought it down to an 8/10. Also, there are alot of things in the movie that doesn't make sense (all I can think ofcontain spoilers so I can't say.)

(2013-04-09 16:42:21)

A Lousy Movie With Little To Offer.

Well, tonight's bargain rack movie was "Assault on Precinct 13." The movie was difficult for me to understand. The dialogue was in the F-bomb dialect of the English language (that's where the F-word is used as a noun, verb, adjective and adverb, sometimes all in the same sentence, plus F-bombs were liberally dropped just as all-purpose expletives and ersatz punctuation marks) such that those of us not so well versed in that particular dialect should have been offered subtitles to help us comprehend the movie. I've often noticed that when this particular language problem occurs, the movie itself doesn't seem to have much to offer and I've thought that perhaps the language barrier might be interfering with my understanding.In any case, the cast and the plot were also a bit confusing. There were a lot of good guys (cops) and some bad guys (criminals), at least in the beginning. Well, some of the good guys had to take the bad guys to a prison on a bleak snowy night and they couldn't make it because of the storm so they holed up in an old police station known as Precinct 13 to spend the night and wait for the end of the storm. One of the bad guys being transported was really, really bad and was referred to as Bishop. Well, then the precinct suddenly came under assault by a platoon of good guys (cops) who were really actually bad guys (yes, cops) and the bad good guys were trying to get the really bad guy away from the good good guys because he had the goods on them, or something like that. Anyway, it was the good cops (plus the original bad guys who were converted to good guys to help withstand the assault ) against the bad cops (originally good guys) in a fight to the finish and the casualty rate on both sides was very high, not to mention the property damage. Well, I've probably got this all screwed up, but it really doesn't matter. Let's just say it was a lousy movie with little to offer except a lot of bad language and violence..Gary Peterson

(2013-04-09 05:20:13)

Not Even for Free

One of my very favorite John Carpenter films after such films as Halloween, the Fog, the Thing, Vampires and Escape from New York is one of his very first films, "Assault on Precinct 13" made in 1976 on a shoe-string budget.It is this 1976 John Carpenter film from which this 2005 remake is based. Except for their titles and both movie settings taking place in abandon police stations, neither movie has anything else in common.In the original film, a ruthless L.A. gang, the Chulos, are out-and-about reeking havoc when they kill the daughter of a distraught father. The father chases down the gang members, exacts his revenge, and wanders aimlessly into a police station which is closing down. Other gang members follow, and an all out war is fought in a deserted neighborhood of L.A. The bad guys die, the good guys prevail; cops and convicts form a bond of trust.This film was written by John Carpenter, directed by John Carpenter, and scored by John Carpenter. It was a labor of love, and you felt and cared for what happened to the characters.In this big-budgeted remake, an all-star cast is enthralled in the middle of good cops-dirty cops war with the dirty cops trying to cover their tracks of lascivious dealings and dastardly kick-backs. There's no camaraderie formed, the characters are flat, and the audience does not care what happens to them.Avoid this film at all cost!!!! Rent the original.http://farisreel.com

unclejay73

(2013-03-26 09:35:14)

Good remake, but can't top the original...

Remake after remake...they just keep on coming. But this time, it's aremake of one of my personal favorite flicks, directed by the greatJohn Carpenter. However, it is my duty to inform you that this remakeis actually very good, BUT doesn't compare to its classic predecessor.Although maybe I'm just a bit bias.Like recent remakes, "Assault on Precinct 13" is a 'reworking' of itsprevious story.Our hero cop this time is Sgt. Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke), anundercover cop who was demoted to desk duty due to a drug-bust gonewrong which involved the deaths of two of his fellow officers. Eightmonths after the incident we find out that Roenick has been the headofficer at Detroit's rundown Precinct 13, due to be closed at Midnight,New Year's Day.It's December 31st and our hero villain, head gangster Marion Bishop(Laurence Fishburne), has been captured by the police due to hismurdering of a corrupt cop. Marcus Duvall (Gabriel Byrne), is the headof a special police unit that wants nothing more but to see Bishop deador in his custody (same difference).Meanwhile Roenick's skeleton crew, which consists of veteran cop JasperO'Shea (Brian Dennehy) and sexy secretary Iris Ferry (Drea de Matteo),all look forward to a slow and drunken night to celebrate the coming ofthe New Year and the closing of the almost abandoned precinct. However,Roenick has one scheduled visitor, Dr. Alex Sabian (Maria Bello), apsychologist analyzing Roenick for his drug-bust disaster.Bishop, along with two-bit criminals Beck (John Leguizamo), Anna (AishaHinds) and Smiley (Ja Rule), board a bus to be transferred to asecurity prison, but a huge snow-storm (great story move) delays thisaction and they are forced to wait out the night at Precinct 13, muchto Roenick's dismay. After this is quietly and unofficially supervisedby Duvall, an all-out siege is conducted on the precinct, manned byDuvall's special police unit. Roenick realizes that these hombres areafter Bishop but also won't give up until everyone in the joint isdead. So, the cops and criminals and guests all team together in aneffort to stop Duvall's assault on Precinct 13.That's pretty much it, and pretty damn good it is. French directorJean-François Richet brings us a dark and gritty action flick here.Solid, edgy and pretty straight to the point...elements needed in ashoot 'em up police actioner. Well shot and well edited I might add.Carpenter's "13" is a balls out cult-actioner from the 70s that hasthat certain charm to it, and can never be matched: the groundbreakinguse of silencers, the characters (especially Darwin Joston's NapoleonWilson), the famous Carpenter music and the classic dialogue ("Anyonegotta smoke?"). This "13" measures as a solid, police action-thriller,nowhere near as serious or great as "The French Connection" or "L.A.Confidential", but damn finer than most cop thrillers of today.I had fun!

(2013-03-25 22:35:50)

Cops and Criminals Join Together to Fight a Common Enemy

Hollywood remakes are usually weak, but this remake of the 1976 movie is a pretty good one, with some good suspense and drama. It stars Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne in the main roles, with a pretty good supporting cast of heroes and villains. The storyline of this movie involves a gang of men who attack a police precinct where a mob member (played by Fishburne) is being held prisoner. They attack because they are trying to get this guy. As a result, the cops and prisoners decide to take up arms together to fight this outside enemy. They are still adversaries and they distrust each other. But they know they must join forces if they want to win this battle. Is a plot like this realistic? Possibly, and the characters make it seem halfway believable. But some parts of this movie aside from the plot itself make it seem unreal. For one thing, the guys inside the precinct- both cop and criminal- seem a little too cool. They know they are under attack, but they act very relaxed about the whole thing, which isn't much like reality. Second, there is little intervention taking place on the outside. If something like this really happened, I would think (hope) the outside world would quickly be made aware and would send help. Or, at the very least, there would be reporters and local people gathered around while the event was taking place. In this movie, there is really nothing at all on the outside. No one in Detroit (where the movie is set) seems to care at all that this police precinct is under siege. Still, I think this is a good movie to watch. If nothing else, it is worth watching just to see Laurence Fishburne in action. He and Hawke steal the show with their chemistry and their strength of person and character.

shaidarharan

(2013-03-14 18:45:50)

possibly the worst movie I have ever seen

watch it and laugh at how awful the dialogue, how contrived andillogical the action, and how utterly without merit the movie is. Whata waste of a cool premise with a bad antihero. I was expecting a goodbad action flick, like the recent Cradle 2 the Grave, Bad Boys 2, andeven Exit Wounds, but this was worthless. I wouldn't consider this aspoiler. The movie starts with dumb cops dying from really dumbmistakes and continues with more dumb cops dying/hit squad deaths. Iwould really hope a special combat team and even normal cops couldhandle combat better than a paintball or video game player, but thismovie's combat could've been dreamed up by 8 yearolds in 1 try. Thereason I say 1 try is because I'm sure they would have improvementsafter seeing the first take.

itsparsley

(2013-03-14 07:53:49)

Finally some potential is shown in the action genre!

While many action films these days are comprised of bad story lines,worthless characters, bad actors, and too much cgi; Assault on Precinct13 is not. A remake of John Carpenter's classic flick, the newadaptation takes on the basic concept and aims for an updated fun newperspective. Ethan Hawke is a fantastic (and underrated) actor whoplays a police sergeant addicted to pain killers with a troubled past.While keeping everyone in line during the hectic night of snipers andexplosions he must grow as a person. Very well portrayed. LaurenceFishburne was great to watch no question but he could have had moredialog to play with. At times it was like watching a caged Lion, agreat actor with only little bits to work with. You can't deny thatwatching Ethan and Fishburne pairing up to take on bad guys isn'tenjoyable. Sure there are plenty of generic moments throughout the filmbut action flicks these days are sloppy and lack any depth whatsoever.Assault on Precinct 13 rises above this.

(2013-03-04 08:28:19)

Stop talking!!!!!!!!

The only reason I enjoyed this movie was for the good action scenes and because of Laurence Fishburne who was great as usual. But, the movie was kind of dissapointing. It's about a presinct that gets more than it expected on New Year's eve. A group of men invade it showing no mercy and wanting Bishop (Laurencre Fishburne) a bad criminal. But to take him out, they're willing to take out everyone in the presinct. So, all of the prisoners must join with the few cops to resist this mysterious group of people. The movie for is really repetitive and had way too many cuss words. Also, John Leguizamo was SO BLOODY ANNOYING. He just wouldn't shut up, I mean you'll be so annoyed by him and you'll be wishing for him to get shot so that he'll just shut up. Also, Ethan Hawke isn't an actor I like that much so that took into play. There's some descent action and thanks to Laurence Fishburne, it was ok. I wouldn't even rent it because of the repetitive action and stuff and because of John Leguizamo. I mean you don't know what's annoying until you've seen him. So, if I were you, I wouldn't do like I did and stay away from this. Actually, this movie's worth 2 and 1/2 or 3 stars but John Leguizamo just dropped it down a notch. I mean, picture a crying baby who is just crying nonstop. Ok? Well, John Leguizamo is a lot more annoying than that. And at the end of the movie, you'll be thinking: Stop talking!!!!!!But, don't worry John, you didn't ruin the movie! You just made it a lot worse!!!!

Kris

(2013-03-03 22:43:41)

"Assault On Precinct 13" is impressive!

"Assault On Precinct 13" is impressive! An well-made remake based on John Carpenter's 1976 original. The all-star cast led by Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne is superb. Mindblowing from beginning to end.

(2013-02-15 04:13:30)

The original was great, but the remake is even better

On New Year's Eve, the few remaining police officers at a police precinct that is set to close the next day, and their prisoners, find themselves cut off from the outside world and under siege. Their attackers outnumber them considerably and will not stop until everyone inside the precinct is dead.I am probably committing a sacrilege by saying this, but even though the original John Carpenter version of "Assault on Precinct 13" is a really great film, the remake is even better. Screenwriter James DeMonaco has taken Carpenter's original idea, kept all of the things that worked and fixed all of the things that didn't. For example, in the original film, the people attacking the precinct were essentially zombies: they never spoke; they had no personality; and they kept on coming at the precinct with no fear of death and with only the flimsiest of motives. In the remake, the attackers are humanized (in the form of Gabriel Byrne) and given a motive that is strong enough to make me believe that they would lay siege on a police precinct and keep going to the death. DeMonaco also gives more humanity to the people inside the precinct. These people, particularly Sgt Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) and gangster Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburn), are real people with real flaws, whereas in the original, I always felt that criminal Napoleon Wilson (Marion Bishop's counterpart) was a bit too honourable to be a gangster. These changes made this film a lot more satisfying for me and convinced me that this is the better of the two films. Having said that, the original is also thoroughly worth watching and I recommend that anyone who is interested in seeing this film see both versions, back to back, and make up their own mind about which is the better of the two.

(2013-02-14 18:36:01)

Hmmm...

What to say about this remake of a great film. This is one of the few action movies that is character driven and not plot driven. Sure the plot line is always there, but it seems that the director made an effort to show us who was trapped in the building. I really enjoyed this movie. The action is non-stop and keeps you waiting for what will happen next. There are also enough plot twists to keep you guessing.If you are an action film fan this one is for you!

Coke_Can

(2013-02-04 20:29:26)

Not too bad

I was not aware that this movie was a remake, and went into it with nopreconceptions about whether it would be good or not. Expecting to seeboth Ethan Hawke and Lawrence Fishburne, I was pleasantly surprised atthe rest of the cast as well. John Leguizamo, Brian Dennehy and Drea DeMateo were all decent choices for their supporting roles. This moviedoes contain a lot of graphic violence and few punches are pulled. WhatI particularly enjoyed was the very brief "moral dilemmas" thecharacters underwent. Hawke having to decide if he can kill another copfor example. Whereas some movies would draw this out over a matter ofminutes, his character realizes in an instant that he can, and thenbrutally and without remorse, goes about the business of protectingthose within his charge. I would have to say that I rate movies on howmuch I would expect to pay to see them... Free being a crap movie,Cineplex being a great movie, and a rental somewhere in the middle.This movie is definitely a rental. If you are a fan of action movies,this will keep you entertained for 2 hours and you will have gottenyour $5 worth. Be advised though guys...if you make yourwife/girlfriend sit through this bloodbath, expect an evening of TheNotebook...followed by hours of talk about your relationship...

(2013-02-04 13:24:44)

TWISTED ACTION

This review is from: Assault on Precinct 13 (Widescreen Edition) (DVD) BUY THIS ONE FOR YOUR COLLECTION. CHILDREN OVER 17 ONLY FOR LANGUAGE AND VIOLENCE ONLY.THIS MOVIE WILL KEEP YOU IN SUSPENSE UNTIL THE ABSOLUTELY END. ALL THE ACTORS AND ACTRESSES PLAYED THEIR PART TO THE HILT.MUST SEE; BUT EXPECT TO BE ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT FOR APPREHENSION.BUY, BUY, BUY, BUY, BUY. YOU HAVE TO SEE IT TWICE JUST TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU DIDN'T MISS ANYTHING.IT IS ABOUT POLICE CORRUPTION & CRIMINALS AT THIER WORST...........and then they COLLIDE.

bobochildrunningwild

(2013-01-28 20:39:05)

Assault on your brain - Beyond DUMB

Assault on Precinct 13 is the absolute dumbest film I've seen sinceCharlie's Angels 2. The shame lies in the fact that they had a goodcast and a good premise to work with. SPOILERS .............................................................I know they've said this movie is a remake descendant of Rio Bravo butdid the writers of this film actually watch Rio Bravo? Besides the factthat Rio Bravo is a western classic, the premise of the film was thatthe sheriff (John Wayne) had to keep a prisoner accused of murder frombeing liberated by his brother and his gang. No one wants to liberateanyone in Assault on Precinct 13. They want EVERYONE dead. So, my firstquestion would have to be, WHY NOT JUST BURN THE WHOLE PLACE DOWN FROMTHE START? Why "assault" the place at all? I know the contrived plotturn was suppose to be clever and shocking but it didn't make senseand/or was presented properly. If the veteran cop was in on it from thestart, why the need for this whole movie? If the veteran cop suddenlycut a deal at the back door during the siege, how did he even get thechance? As soon as he appeared at the door he would've been shot andthey would've had their entry point. It's all just FUBAR. What part of any city can an all out war take place at a policeprecinct (complete with helicopters and massive explosions) but no onenotices?? However, as soon as there's a fire they have to "leave beforethe fire department shows up"?????? How did they plan to cover up thechaos that was happening outside?? Police issue bullets in the walls,bullet casings, footprints, equipment usage, and the fact that therewere going to be no bodies of "Bishop's men" to be found? How aboutthose police snipers? How could they possibly miss so badly so often? Ilike the fact that when the two detainees tried to run, the sniperswere foiled by two tiny mounds of snow. As if it's not possible toshoot a high powered riffle through a pile of snow. The set up was interesting although ridiculous but the movie just wentoff a cliff when they decided to kill that particular character with abullet to the head for absolutely NO REASON at all. I know the makersof the film were going for shock but all they got was disgust at thecruelty and the anger of the audience. Don't you think that part of thereason why this thing is bombing at the box office is the fact thatword of mouth has everyone telling friends and family to stay away fromthis one? That particular scene has to be a big part of that word ofmouth (that and the fact that every plot turn is dumber then dirt). Theconclusion remains steadily stupid as the villain pauses to deliver anAustin Powers-like diatribe instead of killing the helpless people whohe has finally captured. I know several people have mentioned theclosing scenes that take place in the woods of Detroit city (>snicker

Iainkelt

(2013-01-28 11:59:07)

Terrible....simply terrible

OK, here is the deal. I love action movies and generally have noproblem suspending a great deal of disbelief over plot holes or otherimplausible actions. However, this movie went far beyond minor flawsand went straight to the ridiculous. Let me get this straight. Thepolice send a notorious gangster and cop killer (along with a number ofother prisoners) on a bus with a grand total of two guards. They thenare forced to stop at a precinct where precisely two cops are working,one of which is a day away from retirement and the other is a burn out.Apparently the building was about to be shut down so somehow the policedecided that everyone else in the entire precinct got the night off fornew year's eve. Right. But wait, it gets better. Gabriel Byrne shows upto take out Fishburne before he can rat him and other dirty cops out.(although we never find out anything about their relationship ordealings). Interestingly, the cops launching the assault on theprecinct are in full SWAT gear with night vision goggles, assaultrifles, the whole nine yards. Later on they even bring in a helicopterwith MORE people in full gear. I'm not a cop, but I'm pretty sure youcan't just waltz out of the station with an entire swat platoon worthof equipment without someone asking what you are doing. And the policehelicopter??? In the supposedly terrible winter storm??? Also, no onenear the precinct happens to hear or see this major siege going on withflash grenades and heavy rifle fire going off? I mean seriously, comeon. I know this is set in Detroit, but even there it would raisesuspicion on a supposedly top secret mission. I also love the fact thatthey find a Tommy Gun in the evidence room and somehow the gun stillworks and has bullets that are still intact and usable.I could live with some of these problems if there weren't other glaringissues also. For one, the opening couple minutes of the movie are shotnicely in a very frenetic and hyperactive way and I thought was goingto set the tone for the rest of the movie. Unfortunately I was wrong.The remainder of the film has no sense of pacing or tension or drama.The "characters" don't relate to each other in any way which isprobably largely due to the fact that they aren't particularlyinteresting. There isn't enough interesting action to make this a goodaction movie, and there isn't enough character development/storytellingto make this a passable thriller/drama. The "relationship" betweenHawke/Fishburn is the only thing that the director even tries to makeinteresting or intense. Oh and by the way, the final scene in thewilderness? Uh, I thought this was in the middle of a run downindustrial section of Detroit and suddenly we are in the woods?? Theacting isn't terrible in this movie, it is just that the directing andwriting are atrocious. I really enjoy some of Hawkes, Fishburne, Byrne,Dennehy's other movies but this one is terrible.