Assault on Precinct 13 [HD DVD] at DVD Hills.com

Assault on Precinct 13 [HD DVD]

List Price: ~~$29.98~~
Our Price: $0.13
You Save: $29.85 (100%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.09 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details

Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada

DVD details

Actor: Drea de Matteo, Ethan Hawke, Gabriel Byrne, Laurence Fishburne, Maria Bello
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language); French (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-05-09
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal

DVD Reviews of Assault on Precinct 13 [HD DVD]

DVD Review: They are coming to blow Laurence Fishburne away
Summary: 4 Stars

I did not see John Carpenter's original version of "Assault on Precinct 13," but that did matter to my enjoyment of the 2005 remake. I was paying attention so I knew what the set up was, both inside and out of the precinct, as we went along. But being ahead of the characters on this one does not do you much good because there are ample twists in James DeMonaco's script (I made the mistake of announcing right before the first assault the two characters I was sure would survive all the bullets and I was half-right, which is a polite way of saying I was half-wrong).

It is New Year's Eve in Jean-Francois Richet's film and it has started to snow heavily. Precinct 13 officially closes at the stroke of midnight and filling up the last boxes are Sergeant Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke), who has been hiding behind a desk ever since an undercover gig went horribly bad and he was wounded while his two partners were killed, grizzled veteran Jasper O'Shea (Brian Dennehy) who is always talking about retirement, and secretary Iris Ferry (Drea de Matteo) who is always talking about sex with bad boys. Jake would rather talk about sex than his feelings about what happened before with Alex Sabian (Mario Bello), the department shrink who happens to stop by on a snowy New Year's Eve to take another crack at Jake's psyche.

Then a Detroit police transport bus shows up with a quartet of prisoners, unable to get to the prison because of the storm and a highway accident. There is Beck (John Leguizamo), who will not shut up, Anna (Alisha Hinds) a girl with a crew-cut who proclaims her innocence, Smiley (Ja Rule), a counterfeiter, and Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne), the most notorious criminal in the city, who has just been arrested for murdering an undercover cop under suspicious circumstances. So when a couple of guys with guns break into the precinct and everybody is yelling these are Bishop's men coming to get get, we do not buy it. After all, as soon as Bishop saw them he hid behind a wall. Things are just beginning to get interesting.

"Assault on Precinct 13" is an action film where the human element is really more interesting once Jake figures out that to survive the night he needs everybody to help out, which means not only the prisoners but the women. Everybody gets a gun in this one, but you know full well that not everybody can be trusted with one. Furthermore, Jake is fully aware that Bishop is the smartest and deadliest person there, but this movie is all about making the best of a bad situation that keeps getting worse. The death of one character really puts the way this is going to play out into question, and I liked the note on which the film actually ends once we finally get down to the inevitable confrontation between the two main characters. Not great, but certainly an enjoyable action picture with a minimum amount of stupidity on the part of the characters once you accept the idea the die is cast and it is all or nothing for the bad guys. That is a pretty good recommendation for this genre.

Write your own review

More Assault on Precinct 13 [HD DVD] reviews:
1 2

Description of Assault on Precinct 13 [HD DVD]

Action buffs will have a fine time with the spray of bullets, shattering glass, and pyrotechnic silliness that makes up the bulk of Assault on Precinct 13. Updated from the little-known cops-and-robbers classic John Carpenter made in 1976 (two years before he made his name with Halloween), this high-concept thriller is mostly a lowbrow kill-fest, and is very happy with itself for being so efficient in both categories. A decrepit police station on its last night before retirement--New Year's Eve, no less--plays unexpected home to a gang of criminals who become snowbound in the basement lockup. Another mysterious gang of people who stealthily gather in the blizzard outside want one of the particularly nasty criminals (Laurence Fishburne) dead, and they'll take the rest of the precinct down too, by golly. The odd lot of characters trapped inside include a burned-out sergeant (Ethan Hawke), a sexpot secretary (post-Sopranos Drea de Matteo), an even sexier police psychologist (Maria Bello), and various other good guys and bad guys who variously go down in blazes of guts, glory, bullets, and fire. Hawke and Fishburne are opposite sides of the coin: the law, and the bathroom scale. Their need to partner in order to survive the guns outside is the movie's moral conflict, and both actors chew on Precinct 13's peeling walls and scuffed floors to drive the point home every chance they get. Obvious filmmaking fakery abounds in everything from the irksome snowstorm, frequent gunshots to the head, and a shadowy forest that conveniently presents itself in an industrial section of Detroit for the climactic showdown. No matter, this Assault is for non-thinkers who want blood and gunpowder, with no messy slowdowns for logic, please.--Ted Fry

Bestsellers in DVD

The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]
Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video

Wresting With God [VHS]
by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops: ~~$19.99~~

Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS] Image

Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]
Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops: ~~$44.00~~

Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS] Image

Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]
HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops: ~~$9.98~~

Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/Party Video [VHS] Image

Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]
HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video

Strike the Original Match [VHS]
New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops: ~~$14.95~~

Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image

Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]
JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99

Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008 Image

Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008
by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops: ~~$1,463.24~~

Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single User Image

Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single User
by Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops: ~~$1,463.24~~

Cost Accounting [VHS]
by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video

Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs

The Watcher [HD DVD]
Release date: 2007-06-26; DVD
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

End of Days [HD DVD]
Release date: 2006-09-26; DVD
Best price: $0.89
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

16 Blocks (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD)
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2006-06-13; DVD
Best price: $13.35
Price in other shops: ~~$39.99~~

The Skeleton Key [HD DVD]
Release date: 2007-05-22; DVD
Best price: $0.45
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

Daylight [HD DVD]
Daylight; Release date: 2007-06-12; DVD
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

Born on the Fourth of July [HD DVD]
Universal; Release date: 2007-06-12; DVD
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

The Kingdom (HD DVD/ Standard DVD Combo)
Universal Pictures; Release date: 2007-12-23; DVD
Best price: $2.77
Price in other shops: ~~$26.98~~

Unleashed [HD DVD]
Universal; Release date: 2007-06-26; DVD
Best price: $0.43
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

Inside Man [HD DVD]
Release date: 2007-10-23; DVD
Best price: $3.85
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

Four Brothers [HD DVD]
Paramount; Release date: 2006-08-01; DVD
Best price: $0.55
Price in other shops: ~~$29.99~~

Assault on Precinct 13 [HD DVD]