It feels rare when the same person likes an original movie and its remake. Often, it seems like if a person likes the original, they are resistant, even disgruntled, to giving the remake a chance. I am the first to say that I fall into this group. Two of the biggest ones are the remakes of Point Break (2015 – 11% critics, 29% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and Flatliners (2017 – 4%, 32%), two of my all-time favorite movies. Likewise, there are times when we watch the remake without ever having seen the original. We like the remake so much that we don’t want to see the original because we either don’t feel the need or think it can be compared.

Two examples for me were Straw Dogs (2011 – admittedly, with an underwhelming 43%, 34%, maybe more of a guilty pleasure than anything) compared to the original (1971 – 81%, 82%) and Papillon, a movie I loved. Another example is the breathtaking version of A Star is Born, the fourth remake of this film that was such an incredible theater-going experience that I’ll continue to rewatch versions of that without giving any of the predecessors a chance. There is also the group of movies where you don’t like the original, have hopes for the remake, and are ultimately disappointed.

Two examples of this for me were IT (1990 original, 2017 remake) and Little Women (1933, 1949, 1994, 2018, 2019), though I admit that my first watch of the 1994 adaptation was pretty decent. Finally, there is the category where the original and the remake are equally enjoyable. This is the case with John Carpenter’s 1976 Assault on Precinct 13 (95%, 80%) and Jean Richet’s 2005 remake (60%, 48%). While most will appreciate the original of the 1976 version, I enjoyed the intensity of the 2005 version, though, admittedly, I watched the remake years before seeing the original the first time.

Tensions are high on a Saturday night in crime-plagued South Central Los Angeles. To help control the crime rate, some local police officers often discharge their weapons and shoot to kill rather than go through the proper protocols for apprehending potential criminals. Witnessing this injustice, a local street gang named Street Thunder wages a war of revenge on the police and citizens of LA.

Our lead protagonist is Officer Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker – Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Time Walker), a transitioning highway patrolman promoted to police lieutenant. He learns his first night on the job will be supervising Precinct 13, as it shuts its doors for the last time before moving to its new location due to its present location becoming mostly abandoned over recent years. There, he meets the other characters for the first time.

Meanwhile, three local convicts are transported from a nearby jail to the state’s prison. Escorted by special agent Starker (Charles Cyphers – Halloween, The Fog) are the husky Wells (Tony Burton – Rocky II, Rocky Balboa), a primarily uncommunicative and ill-looking Cornell (Peter Frankland), and Napoleon (Darwin Joston), a shackled, psychotic inmate awaiting a death row sentence. As Cornell gets sicker and sicker, Starker decides to pull off to the nearest police house, that being (of course) Precinct 13. All of the precinct’s prisoners have been escorted to their new jail, meaning that the holding cells are empty, and there is nothing more than a skeleton working Precinct 13’s last night. The three prisoners are placed in the empty cells while Starker attempts to connect via telephone with the district’s doctor, hoping they can come and determine the cause of Cornell’s illness.

Finally, a father named Lawson (Martin West – Mac and Me, Family Plot) and his daughter Kathy (Escape to Witch Mountain, Meatballs Part II) are out for a drive. Lost, he pulls his car near the precinct and pulls out his map. Hearing the ice cream truck, Kathy dashes from the car. Shortly after receiving her vanilla ice cream cone (not the vanilla twist she requested, but that’s neither here nor there), the four warlords of Street Thunder approach the truck and shoot Kathy and the daughter on the spot. Fast-forwarding a little, Lawson secures a concealed gun from underneath the ice cream man’s dashboard. He shoots his daughter’s killer. Outmatched, he sprints to the precinct’s front doors, where our movie unfolds.

The Street Thunder warlords watch Lawson enter the precinct and call on their reinforcements. The remainder of the movie is about the players mentioned above, along with a pair of prison guards and a switchboard operator, Leight (Nancy Kyes – Halloween, The Fog), trying to withstand the night with limited ammo as the gang attempts to penetrate the building to enact vengeance on their fallen leader and all those who harbor him.

Assault on Precinct 13 is an edgy thriller that likely pushed the envelope some during the mid-1970s. As imagined, the visuals aren’t nearly as impressive as the Ethan Hawke/Laurence Fishburn-led 2005 version. You don’t feel trapped in jail with our band of leaders as you do in the remake. The characters are less intense in Carpenter’s telling of the story, though we get to know them well enough during the 90-minute runtime, which can be rare with shorter movies with as many characters. There is a certain likeness to all of the good guys, though we don’t get to know the gang members as we do Richet’s remake.

While Dark Star introduced audiences to Carpenter, Assault on Precinct 13 is the movie that put the director on the map as a mainstay for the next 20 years. The 2005 remake had lofty expectations to reach. While Richet’s is an underappreciated and, as the first paragraph of this review hints, might be one that is never given a chance due to how well-made the original one was. I recommend seeing both, beginning with the 1975 original.

Plot 9.5/10
Character Development 9/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 7.5/10 (serviceable for this type of movie in the mid-1970s)
Screenplay 8/10
Directing  9/10
Cinematography 8/10
Sound 9.5/10
Hook and Reel 9.5/10
Universal Relevance 7.5/10
85.5%

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