Reviews

Thanks, mercutio-8 for the information that it was based on a play, that helped me to understand that there might have been something to it once... But now there is almost no plot at all, just a couple of scenes with heavy bantering (sometimes somewhat funny) and some very unstructured criticism of the McCarthy era.

There has to be more to be made out of this concept - comedy under the strain of self-imposed (?) censorship during McCarthyism, rivalry and yet comradeship between writers, the actual process of brainstorming, the early TV-market economy demands from media barons vs. artistic freedom. I think there was an ambition to show these different themes - although the director accomplished none of the above.

No shadow should fall on the actors though - they're all top of the line. But when they get such a lousy script to work with, what can they do?

Yeah-yeah-yeah, I know this is supposed to be a "Rio Bravo" set in mid-1970's L.A. But all the same, WHAT A SNORE! If Carpenter paid tribute to the classic western this way he must've hated "Rio Bravo".

The actors seem to be on the verge of narcolepsy, the plot is non-sensical, the female characters are either hysteric or try to look horny yet tough, but can't seem to make up their mind. No wonder we never heard of any of them afterwards, their performance could be enhanced by them studying grass growing.

"Assault on Precinct 13" actually reminds me of some sort of zombie movie from the 50's - the gang attacking the police station must've gone to the same actor's studio as the extras in "Plan 9 from Outer Space". There is absolutely no logic whatsoever to what they are doing and also a mystery to where they all came from or why they all would do such a stupid thing. They all seem to have the brains of laboratory mice, yet the logistics of a SWAT-team.

I've got to hand it to Carpenter though that his syntheziser music is kind of cool and certainly sticks in your head.

The reason I give it a two out of ten is that it is slightly better than a porno movie, with just a fraction more of plot and dialogue (although it shares some of a pornoflick's fascination for showing people riding around in cars). Maybe I'm a cynic after all and realize that I probably will see something even worse the next fifty years, which I will reserve the score "one" for.

In the end the final verdict is: don't waste your time or money except to avoid it at all cost!

2/10