Assault on Precinct 13

Caught this on cable one night.  I think I vaguely remember seeing the commercials for this and wanting to see it.  Mostly because I like most Ethan Hawke movies, I think  There turned out to be some other good actors, like Brian Dennehy, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Byrne and Maria Bello (looking mighty hot.)  And Drea de Matteo and John Leguizamo.  Several good actors.

The story starts out with Ethan Hawke being part of a drug bust gone bad.  Both of his partners are killed and he's shot in the leg.  Jump forward a year, and he's lost his confidence.  He now works behind a desk at a precinct jail.  He's become addicted to his pain pills.  And he's blocking any attempts by the psychologist to get through to him.

The precinct he's at is moving to a new location.  For some reason, the move is completed on New Year's Eve.  So there's just he, Dennehy and de Matteo left in the building.  A big time drug kingpin, Fishburne, plus some other assorted prisoners are being transferred that night.  There's a bad snow storm, and the road ahead is too treacherous, so the prison bus stops at their precinct.

That was on plot point that I may have missed.  I couldn't tell if it was just luck that the bus got diverted there.  Or if the crooked cops manufactured a way to divert them.

The early assaults by the crooked cops are fairly weak.  I'm not sure why.   But because of that, they're easily repelled.  That gives the people inside warning, plus some extra weapons.

A few dilemmas ensue.  Do they let the petty criminals aid in the defense?   How about the kingpin?  How can they get word out?  Can Hawke retain control of himself and the situation?

Most of the movie made sense.  But there were those bits I mentioned that were never clear to me.

On my brother's Total Movie Value Scale, Pay Per View with Dinner.  Not bad, but never really rose above the contrived situation.

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