ASSAULT ON PRECINCT L3

Every now and then it's just great to go out and have a good time at the movies. The remake of SSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 provided just that. A remake of a remake, which was already a remake, the new film is a reminaging of John Carpenter's lean film, which itself wss a remake of Howard Hawks' RIO BRAVO, with John Wayne, Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson. The current is less lean but provides more characterization and motivation than Carpenter's,, but has far less of the humor of the Hawks' film.

The action keeps coming, right from the start, and the actors are not just types. It's good to see Lawrence Fishbuourne not being the sententious character he played in THE MATRIX or the the much overrated BYZ IN THE 'HOO D. (Nevertheless, his character was named Bishop, and had enough gravitas to go around) And the always reliabe Brian Dennehy managed to do the too predictable wisdom f old age bit. And it's always good to see Gabriel Byrne.

To be sure, there are some pitfalls, such as the "babe" shrink assigned to Ethan Hawke, and some f the action, particularly toward the end, was so darkly filmed and quickly edited, that I had trouble figuring out what was going on and why

I went to see this film in ways I often do. Go to get away from the phone, with the intentin of only seeing only part of the film. I stayed for the whole thing, and, since it was the last show, I even stayed awake. I'm sure before the year gets much further along, I wil see more higher profile films that are far less satisfying.