Assault on Precinct 13
Directed by Jean-François Richet
- thriller
- action
- adventure
- crime
The story
On New Year's Eve, inside a police station that's about to be closed for good, officer Jake Roenick must cobble together a force made up cops and criminals to save themselves from a mob looking to kill mobster Marion Bishop.
What it’s like
Cold, grey-white exteriors and a pale, snow-blurred city sit against the dim, sickly fluorescent interior of a decommissioned Los Angeles precinct, where the light is harsh and tubular and the shadows pool in corners. Richet frames the chaos with restless handheld camera and tight, claustrophobic close-ups, and the palette drains toward steel blue and dirty tan, with sparks, muzzle flashes and the occasional Molotov fireball as the only warm colour. The soundtrack leans on pounding, percussive synth and gunfire that cracks through the corridors, broken now and then by stretches of eerie quiet and the hum of buzzing lights. The vibe is grim, tense siege-thriller with a bleak winter edge, best suited to a late night alone or a cold weekend when you want to be gripped rather than soothed. Pacing is relentless, with short bursts of calm between escalating standoffs, and the emotional register is hard-edged and cynical, following a reluctant cop and a band of unlikely allies who slowly learn to trust one another under fire. Intensity is high: frequent, brutal gunfire and bloody wounds, with some drug use, a few deaths and tense threats, though nothing gratuitously sexual. This is for viewers who enjoy taut, violent action and gritty ensemble survival stories.
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