Assault on Precinct 13

MPAA Rating: R

Entertainment: +1 1/2

Content: -2 1/2

In this reworking of the 1976 action thriller, Sergeant Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) makes a deadly mistake in a drug bust that costs him his partner and strips him of confidence. He takes a desk job at Precinct 13, an old Detroit precinct house that is about to be closed. As a group of criminals including ruthless cop killer Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne) are being transferred on a wintry New Years Eve, the guards detour to Precinct 13 as a haven from the intensifying storm. Bishop suddenly becomes the target of an assassin (Gabriel Byrne) whose gang surrounds the building and aims to keep him from testifying in a court case. Roenick teams up with Bishop and the other prisoners to help protect all of the inhabitants of Precinct 13 including a gritty, retiring sergeant (Brian Denney), a sex-craved secretary (Drea de Matteo), and a criminal psychiatrist (Maria Bello) from the oncoming assault.

Excessive violence pervades Assault on Precinct 13 and delivers gory brutality with heavy blood flow and a high body count. The opening gunfight leads to the first of many bloodbaths. Individuals are repeatedly shot in the head, and the cinematographer focuses on the wounds at every opportunity. The plot pits good cop against faceless bad cops with tremendous fire power and poor aim. Criminal Marion Bishop sets aside his profound hatred for police officers and allies himself with Sergeant Roenick to defend the precinct from this siege to serve his best interest at the moment. The nymphomaniac secretary enjoys enticing every male in the police station, including criminals, to satiate her sexual hunger. While no sexual acts are performed, gratuitous talk demeans women and reduces sexual intimacy to a basic instinct. The infectious amount of profanity is assault enough to place this one in Previews jailhouse.

Preview Reviewer: Brian Hughes
Distributor: Rogue Pictures

Summary
The following categories contain objective listings of film content which contribute to the subjective numeric Content ratings posted to the left and on the Home page.

Crude Language: Many (17) times - mild (hell 3, damn 1); strong (-ss 8, b-tch 2, SOB 3)

Obscene Language: Many (112) times - mild (scumbag 5); moderate (p-ss 2); strong (f-word 63, s-word 33, pr-ck 2, c-ck 1, BS 5)

Profanity: Many (24) times - moderate (G 3); strong (GD 12, J 3, C 2, JC 3, C-sake 1)

Violence: Many times - mild (shoving, scuffling, struggling, several chase scenes, many displays of raw anger, hysteria, emotional manipulation, scare tactics); moderate (man shot in the leg, man shot in the chest, fighting, stabbing in the neck, multiple gunfights, shooting guns in a church as people attempt to leave a service, discussion of brutality of one criminal toward police officers, man holds another man by the throat, man hits another man in the face with the butt of a gun, sniper shots); strong (many open gunshot wounds shown, many point-blank gunshots to the head, man laying in pain as a result of a gunshot, gratuitous blood from gunshots, talk of a man that brutally pulled the spine out of his victim, lighting a man on fire, woman gouges out the eye of a man and stabs him in the throat and into his brain)

Sex: Few times - mild (implied that the secretary in the police department is sexually active with criminals)

Nudity: Few times - mild (provocatively dressed secretary of the police department shows cleavage and wears tight shorts and skirts and fishnet stockings)

Sexual Dialogue/Gesture: Few times - mild (officers engage in playful sex talk with police secretary and proposition her for sex, men call woman a hooker, man tells a woman that he thinks she is trying to seduce him and she sarcastically agrees); moderate (woman talks about sex being an instinct that you just need to go with); strong (man tells woman that he knows that she wants to f him, a man comments to a woman that making love and dying are rooted in the same feelings)

Drugs: Several times - mild (man drinks hard liquor to numb his guilty feelings, social drinking at New Years celebration); strong (sale of cocaine, use of prescription pain killers in an irresponsible manner)

Other: Man pickpockets a womans purse to obtain a confidential file about himself

Running Time: 109 minutes
Intended Audience: Adults

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