
Assault on Precinct 13

As pointless remakes go, the new Assault on Precinct 13 is actually better than a lot of the recent bunch.
The 1976 John Carpenter original has been reworked enough to give the urban thriller a distinct flavor of its own, and stars (the Carpenter version didn't have any) Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne provide enough gravitas to keep things involving even as some of the supporting characters fight a losing battle with caricature.
But in the end, there just isn't sufficient edge-of-the-seat suspense to make the ultraviolent Assault a desired destination for the targeted young male audience, the majority of whom are likely unfamiliar with the film Carpenter made a couple of years before breaking out big time with Halloween.
Distributed by Focus Features genre division, Rogue Pictures, the film should, however, nab some significant business in its DVD stakeout.
To be fair, Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, was itself a remake, inspired by the 1959 Howard Hawks film Rio Bravo, starring John Wayne and Dean Martin, which exchanged a Wild West town jail for a soon-to-be-shuttered Los Angeles police station that comes under siege by gang members.
Aside from being highly cost-effective, that one-set premise provided for plenty of neatly self-contained, claustrophobic tension that was nicely heightened by Carpenter's off-kilter synthesizer score.
For the brand-new edition, French director Jean-Francois Richet and screenwriter James DeMonaco (The Negotiator) have relocated the setting to an aging precinct on the outskirts of snow-choked Detroit during the closing hours of 2004.
The adverse weather conditions have forced a prison-bound busload of inmates to make a detour to the remote Precinct 13, even though it's in the process of closing down.
Among those being accommodated in its few cells is formidable crime lord Marion Bishop (Fishburne), whose presence puts a damper on the New Year's Eve festivities planned by the precinct's partying secretary, Iris (Drea de Matteo), and veteran cop Jasper Old School O'Shea (Brian Dennehy).
Even Sgt. Jake Roenick (Hawke) was up for the festivities despite still bearing the physical and emotional scars of a badly botched undercover drug sting months earlier that claimed the lives of his team.
But those plans are put on permanent hold when the station house comes under siege from not gang members but a crack force of gunmen commandeered by none other than Marcus Duvall (Gabriel Byrne), chief of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Squad who intends to eradicate Bishop and anybody else who gets in their way.
That cops-attacking-cops twist initially serves the script well until things start unraveling at the midway point. With a good 15 minutes to go before the end, DeMonaco and director Richet, having exhausted all possibilities involving the precinct, are forced to move the action outdoors, which causes the already slackening tension to sag further.
While Hawke and Fishburne do solid work, many of the supporting cast, including Maria Bello and John Leguizamo, are forced to grapple with shrill, stock characters that threaten to sink this Assault in tired B-movie conventions.
Assault on Precinct 13
Rogue Pictures
Rogue Pictures presents a Why Not/Liaison Films/Biscayne Pictures production
Credits:
Director: Jean-Francois Richet
Screenwriter: James DeMonaco
Based on the film written by: John Carpenter
Producers: Pascal Caucheteux, Stephane Sperry, Jeffrey Silver
Executive producers: Don Carmody, Sebastien Kurt Lemercier, Joseph Kaufman
Director of photography: Robert Gantz
Production designer: Paul Denham Austerberry
Editor: Bill Pankow
Costume designers: Vicki Graef, Georgina Yarhi
Music: Graeme Revell
Cast:
Jake Roenik: Ethan Hawke
Marion Bishop: Laurence Fishburne
Iris Ferry: Drea de Matteo
Jasper O'Shea: Brian Dennehy
Beck: John Leguizamo
Smiley: Jeffrey Ja Rule Atkins
Alex Sabian: Maria Bello
Marcus Duvall: Gabriel Byrne
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 109 minutes...
The 1976 John Carpenter original has been reworked enough to give the urban thriller a distinct flavor of its own, and stars (the Carpenter version didn't have any) Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne provide enough gravitas to keep things involving even as some of the supporting characters fight a losing battle with caricature.
But in the end, there just isn't sufficient edge-of-the-seat suspense to make the ultraviolent Assault a desired destination for the targeted young male audience, the majority of whom are likely unfamiliar with the film Carpenter made a couple of years before breaking out big time with Halloween.
Distributed by Focus Features genre division, Rogue Pictures, the film should, however, nab some significant business in its DVD stakeout.
To be fair, Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, was itself a remake, inspired by the 1959 Howard Hawks film Rio Bravo, starring John Wayne and Dean Martin, which exchanged a Wild West town jail for a soon-to-be-shuttered Los Angeles police station that comes under siege by gang members.
Aside from being highly cost-effective, that one-set premise provided for plenty of neatly self-contained, claustrophobic tension that was nicely heightened by Carpenter's off-kilter synthesizer score.
For the brand-new edition, French director Jean-Francois Richet and screenwriter James DeMonaco (The Negotiator) have relocated the setting to an aging precinct on the outskirts of snow-choked Detroit during the closing hours of 2004.
The adverse weather conditions have forced a prison-bound busload of inmates to make a detour to the remote Precinct 13, even though it's in the process of closing down.
Among those being accommodated in its few cells is formidable crime lord Marion Bishop (Fishburne), whose presence puts a damper on the New Year's Eve festivities planned by the precinct's partying secretary, Iris (Drea de Matteo), and veteran cop Jasper Old School O'Shea (Brian Dennehy).
Even Sgt. Jake Roenick (Hawke) was up for the festivities despite still bearing the physical and emotional scars of a badly botched undercover drug sting months earlier that claimed the lives of his team.
But those plans are put on permanent hold when the station house comes under siege from not gang members but a crack force of gunmen commandeered by none other than Marcus Duvall (Gabriel Byrne), chief of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Squad who intends to eradicate Bishop and anybody else who gets in their way.
That cops-attacking-cops twist initially serves the script well until things start unraveling at the midway point. With a good 15 minutes to go before the end, DeMonaco and director Richet, having exhausted all possibilities involving the precinct, are forced to move the action outdoors, which causes the already slackening tension to sag further.
While Hawke and Fishburne do solid work, many of the supporting cast, including Maria Bello and John Leguizamo, are forced to grapple with shrill, stock characters that threaten to sink this Assault in tired B-movie conventions.
Assault on Precinct 13
Rogue Pictures
Rogue Pictures presents a Why Not/Liaison Films/Biscayne Pictures production
Credits:
Director: Jean-Francois Richet
Screenwriter: James DeMonaco
Based on the film written by: John Carpenter
Producers: Pascal Caucheteux, Stephane Sperry, Jeffrey Silver
Executive producers: Don Carmody, Sebastien Kurt Lemercier, Joseph Kaufman
Director of photography: Robert Gantz
Production designer: Paul Denham Austerberry
Editor: Bill Pankow
Costume designers: Vicki Graef, Georgina Yarhi
Music: Graeme Revell
Cast:
Jake Roenik: Ethan Hawke
Marion Bishop: Laurence Fishburne
Iris Ferry: Drea de Matteo
Jasper O'Shea: Brian Dennehy
Beck: John Leguizamo
Smiley: Jeffrey Ja Rule Atkins
Alex Sabian: Maria Bello
Marcus Duvall: Gabriel Byrne
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 109 minutes...
- 2/14/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News

Welcome to Mooseport

Opens
Friday, February 20
Welcome to Mooseport joins the ranks of Hollywood movies about politics that are devoid of political content. Offering mild observations about celebrity and the media, the film centers on a popular ex-president's transition from the White House to rustic New England. The script by Tom Schulman (Dead Poets Society, "What About Bob?") is concerned mainly with personal integrity and romantic commitment, subjects he treats with vague generalities. From the first scenes of Mooseport, which unfolds like a sitcom pilot, it's evident where the pieces will fall. When they do, the impact is minor.
Compounding the sense of predictability and Deja Vu is the presence of well-known TV actors portraying the sorts of characters they've perfected on the small screen. Ray Romano, making his onscreen film debut (after a voice role in Ice Age), puts his tentative, low-voltage delivery to effective use in playing a regular guy -- but fans of Everybody Loves Raymond will find more laughs in his weekly series. Film vets Gene Hackman and Marcia Gay Harden lend whatever nuance they can muster, but there's only so much to be done with Schulman's broad-stroke comedy. When the votes are in, the Donald Petrie-helmed film will poll strongest among older audiences, but it won't secure a landslide for Fox.
Hackman plays the very presidentially named Monroe Eagle Cole, a Democrat fresh off two terms with approval ratings through the roof. A smooth operator with a self-deprecating facade, Monroe is essentially decent and driven by ego -- Hackman puts it all across with his customary naturalness. As the first commander-in-chief to be divorced while in office, he's facing tough alimony negotiations with his vindictive ex (Christine Baranski, in what feels like inevitable casting). With his entourage of Secret Service and staff, Monroe sets up camp at his sprawling summer estate in the laid-back burg of Mooseport, Maine.
Before he can choose among big-bucks offers for memoirs and speaking engagements, the village elders enlist him to fill the void left by their deceased mayor. But what was meant to be an unchallenged run for office turns into a close -- and closely watched -- race between the ex-president and a plumber.
The rivalry between Monroe and Handy Harrison (Romano) is less about issues than about jealousy and male posturing -- specifically for the affections of veterinarian Sally (Maura Tierney), Handy's girlfriend of six years. In a tired story line whose outcome is clear, she's increasingly frustrated with his refusal to pop the question and quickly says yes when Monroe asks her out.
Rip Torn, playing Monroe's campaign manager, arrives upon the scene like a much-needed tonic to the bland proceedings. In the film's best sequences, political strategy sessions focus on urgencies like whether the former president should cancel a date, and the broadcast media get mileage out of his rebuffed good-night kiss.
Those bright moments don't compensate for Petrie and Schulman's condescending view of ain't-they-wacky yokels. Costumer Vicki Graef and production designer David Chapman emphasize the cliched divide between the power elite's country chic and the plaid-flannel brigade's down-home clutter.
WELCOME TO MOOSEPORT
20th Century Fox
Mediastream IV/Intermedia
Credits:
Director: Donald Petrie
Screenwriter: Tom Schulman
Producers: Tom Schulman, Basil Iwanyk
Executive producers: Rory Rosegarten, David Coatsworth, Moritz Borman, Doug Richardson
Director of photography: Victor Hammer
Production designer: David Chapman
Music: John Debney
Costume designer: Vicki Graef
Editor: Debra Neil-Fisher
Cast:
Monroe Cole: Gene Hackman
Handy Harrison: Ray Romano
Grace Sutherland: Marcia Gay Harden
Sally Mannis: Maura Tierney
Charlotte Cole: Christine Baranski
Bullard: Fred Savage
Bert Langdon: Rip Torn
Irma: June Squibb
Morris: Wayne Robson
Martha: Jackie Richardson
Mandy: Reagan Pasternak
Reuben: Jim Feather
Harve: Ed Fielding
Running time -- 111 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Friday, February 20
Welcome to Mooseport joins the ranks of Hollywood movies about politics that are devoid of political content. Offering mild observations about celebrity and the media, the film centers on a popular ex-president's transition from the White House to rustic New England. The script by Tom Schulman (Dead Poets Society, "What About Bob?") is concerned mainly with personal integrity and romantic commitment, subjects he treats with vague generalities. From the first scenes of Mooseport, which unfolds like a sitcom pilot, it's evident where the pieces will fall. When they do, the impact is minor.
Compounding the sense of predictability and Deja Vu is the presence of well-known TV actors portraying the sorts of characters they've perfected on the small screen. Ray Romano, making his onscreen film debut (after a voice role in Ice Age), puts his tentative, low-voltage delivery to effective use in playing a regular guy -- but fans of Everybody Loves Raymond will find more laughs in his weekly series. Film vets Gene Hackman and Marcia Gay Harden lend whatever nuance they can muster, but there's only so much to be done with Schulman's broad-stroke comedy. When the votes are in, the Donald Petrie-helmed film will poll strongest among older audiences, but it won't secure a landslide for Fox.
Hackman plays the very presidentially named Monroe Eagle Cole, a Democrat fresh off two terms with approval ratings through the roof. A smooth operator with a self-deprecating facade, Monroe is essentially decent and driven by ego -- Hackman puts it all across with his customary naturalness. As the first commander-in-chief to be divorced while in office, he's facing tough alimony negotiations with his vindictive ex (Christine Baranski, in what feels like inevitable casting). With his entourage of Secret Service and staff, Monroe sets up camp at his sprawling summer estate in the laid-back burg of Mooseport, Maine.
Before he can choose among big-bucks offers for memoirs and speaking engagements, the village elders enlist him to fill the void left by their deceased mayor. But what was meant to be an unchallenged run for office turns into a close -- and closely watched -- race between the ex-president and a plumber.
The rivalry between Monroe and Handy Harrison (Romano) is less about issues than about jealousy and male posturing -- specifically for the affections of veterinarian Sally (Maura Tierney), Handy's girlfriend of six years. In a tired story line whose outcome is clear, she's increasingly frustrated with his refusal to pop the question and quickly says yes when Monroe asks her out.
Rip Torn, playing Monroe's campaign manager, arrives upon the scene like a much-needed tonic to the bland proceedings. In the film's best sequences, political strategy sessions focus on urgencies like whether the former president should cancel a date, and the broadcast media get mileage out of his rebuffed good-night kiss.
Those bright moments don't compensate for Petrie and Schulman's condescending view of ain't-they-wacky yokels. Costumer Vicki Graef and production designer David Chapman emphasize the cliched divide between the power elite's country chic and the plaid-flannel brigade's down-home clutter.
WELCOME TO MOOSEPORT
20th Century Fox
Mediastream IV/Intermedia
Credits:
Director: Donald Petrie
Screenwriter: Tom Schulman
Producers: Tom Schulman, Basil Iwanyk
Executive producers: Rory Rosegarten, David Coatsworth, Moritz Borman, Doug Richardson
Director of photography: Victor Hammer
Production designer: David Chapman
Music: John Debney
Costume designer: Vicki Graef
Editor: Debra Neil-Fisher
Cast:
Monroe Cole: Gene Hackman
Handy Harrison: Ray Romano
Grace Sutherland: Marcia Gay Harden
Sally Mannis: Maura Tierney
Charlotte Cole: Christine Baranski
Bullard: Fred Savage
Bert Langdon: Rip Torn
Irma: June Squibb
Morris: Wayne Robson
Martha: Jackie Richardson
Mandy: Reagan Pasternak
Reuben: Jim Feather
Harve: Ed Fielding
Running time -- 111 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 3/5/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News

Film review: 'Booty Call'

In the hallowed tradition of quest movies comes "Booty Call". While Indiana Jones may have quested for the Lost Ark and Jason quested for the Golden Fleece, Bunz and Rushon quest for a latex condom. Given the fine and foxy ladies they're on a mission for, modern-day urban audiences might consider Bunz and Rushon's quest much more important than the mere retrieval of old religious arcana.
Accordingly, there should be considerable first-weekend box-office booty for Sony from black, teen audiences, and, to boot, "Booty" should call up some nifty cash from the frat-boy crowd and MTV-heads everywhere.
A risque romp centered around a double date, this Columbia movie is a bawdy blend of hormones laced over with pseudo-sociological sermonizing about the necessity for safe sex. The comic carnality centers around Rushon (Tommy Davidson) and Nikki (Tamala Jones). Rushon and Nikki have gone together for what passes for a long time by today's romantic standards -- seven weeks. Both are upwardly mobile and somewhat strait-laced, but both feel the urge to "do it."
These feelings are fired up by their two libidinous, good-time friends: Womanizer Bunz (Jamie Foxx) goads Rushon to quit jerking around and get Nikki in bed, while Nikki's gal-pal Lysterine (Vivica A. Fox) doesn't believe in holding out for more than 30 minutes.
Unabashedly crude and lewd, "Booty Call" is, especially in its first 45 minutes, a hoot. A strong dose of sexual slapstick lathered up with safe-sex strictures, "Booty" sashays as a first-rate farce. Screenwriters Takashi Bufford and Bootsie have smartly wadded up a batch of sexual frustration, crammed it together with opposite character types, and then massaged it with some tried-and-true comic pleasers like a feisty pet, a hyper Chinese waiter (Gedde Watanabe) and two Punjabi convenience clerks.
Indeed, there's not a lot of correctness gunking up the hilarity and, as you might expect, the subject matter does not hold up throughout, even at 77 minutes.
Not dilly-dallying around with much aesthetic foreplay, director Jeff Pollack keeps things tight and light, but it's the four lead performances that are this callipygean carnality's most alluring charms. Davidson is finely cast as the well-meaning but frustrated Rushon, while Foxx is perfect as a dreadlocked, 'hood rat.
On the distaff side, Jones is a perfect blend of sweetness and sexiness as good-girl Nikki, while Fox smolders as the highly charged Lysterine. Watanabe is terrific as an addled Chinese waiter, a perfect reactive character for the sexual shenanigans.
BOOTY CALL
Sony Pictures Releasing
Columbia Pictures
A Turman/Morrissey Co. production
A film by Jeff Pollack
Producer John Morrissey
Director Jeff Pollack
Screenwriters Takashi Bufford, Bootsie
Director of photography Ron Orieux
Production designer Sandra Kybartas
Editor Christopher Greenbury
Costume designer Vicki Graef
Music Robert Folk
Co-producer John M. Eckert
Casting Mary Vernieu, Ronnie Yeskel
Sound mixer Douglas Ganton
Color/stereo
Cast:
Bunz Jamie Foxx
Rushon Tommy Davidson
Lysterine Vivica A. Fox
Nikki Tamala Jones
Chan Gedde Watanabe
Akmed Art Malik
Singh Scott LaRose
Running time -- 77 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Accordingly, there should be considerable first-weekend box-office booty for Sony from black, teen audiences, and, to boot, "Booty" should call up some nifty cash from the frat-boy crowd and MTV-heads everywhere.
A risque romp centered around a double date, this Columbia movie is a bawdy blend of hormones laced over with pseudo-sociological sermonizing about the necessity for safe sex. The comic carnality centers around Rushon (Tommy Davidson) and Nikki (Tamala Jones). Rushon and Nikki have gone together for what passes for a long time by today's romantic standards -- seven weeks. Both are upwardly mobile and somewhat strait-laced, but both feel the urge to "do it."
These feelings are fired up by their two libidinous, good-time friends: Womanizer Bunz (Jamie Foxx) goads Rushon to quit jerking around and get Nikki in bed, while Nikki's gal-pal Lysterine (Vivica A. Fox) doesn't believe in holding out for more than 30 minutes.
Unabashedly crude and lewd, "Booty Call" is, especially in its first 45 minutes, a hoot. A strong dose of sexual slapstick lathered up with safe-sex strictures, "Booty" sashays as a first-rate farce. Screenwriters Takashi Bufford and Bootsie have smartly wadded up a batch of sexual frustration, crammed it together with opposite character types, and then massaged it with some tried-and-true comic pleasers like a feisty pet, a hyper Chinese waiter (Gedde Watanabe) and two Punjabi convenience clerks.
Indeed, there's not a lot of correctness gunking up the hilarity and, as you might expect, the subject matter does not hold up throughout, even at 77 minutes.
Not dilly-dallying around with much aesthetic foreplay, director Jeff Pollack keeps things tight and light, but it's the four lead performances that are this callipygean carnality's most alluring charms. Davidson is finely cast as the well-meaning but frustrated Rushon, while Foxx is perfect as a dreadlocked, 'hood rat.
On the distaff side, Jones is a perfect blend of sweetness and sexiness as good-girl Nikki, while Fox smolders as the highly charged Lysterine. Watanabe is terrific as an addled Chinese waiter, a perfect reactive character for the sexual shenanigans.
BOOTY CALL
Sony Pictures Releasing
Columbia Pictures
A Turman/Morrissey Co. production
A film by Jeff Pollack
Producer John Morrissey
Director Jeff Pollack
Screenwriters Takashi Bufford, Bootsie
Director of photography Ron Orieux
Production designer Sandra Kybartas
Editor Christopher Greenbury
Costume designer Vicki Graef
Music Robert Folk
Co-producer John M. Eckert
Casting Mary Vernieu, Ronnie Yeskel
Sound mixer Douglas Ganton
Color/stereo
Cast:
Bunz Jamie Foxx
Rushon Tommy Davidson
Lysterine Vivica A. Fox
Nikki Tamala Jones
Chan Gedde Watanabe
Akmed Art Malik
Singh Scott LaRose
Running time -- 77 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 2/24/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.