Assault on Precinct 13 Blu-ray review

Jun 16, 2022- Permalink

Directed by Jean-François Richet, 2005’s Assault on Precinct 13 is a remake of the 1976 John Carpenter film. Sergeant Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) is a pill-popping Detroit cop working the graveyard shift at a soon-to-be decommissioned police station. It’s New Years Eve and when a snowstorm diverts a prison truck to the station, Roenick finds himself playing host to mob boss Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne). Things heat up when the station comes under attack by crooked cops out to silence Bishop and Roenick must arm cops and criminals to defend the station. Who can you trust? Mill Creek has now released a Blu-ray of the film, which also stars John Leguizamo, Maria Bello, Ja Rule, Drea de Matteo, Brian Dennehy, Aisha Hinds and Gabriel Byrne.

The 1080p AVC encoded transfer is presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. The video presentation is quite good with detail in facial textures, textiles and locations. The colour palette is natural and the black levels are deep with a good amount of detail in the frequent dark scenes. Compression artifacts are at a minimum.

On the audio side, Assault on Precinct 13 has an English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio soundtrack. English SDH are available. It’s a really good mix and action and ambient effects make good use of the surrounds while your subwoofer adds extra oomph to the proceedings. Dialogue is clear, centred and well prioritized in the mix.

Assault on Precinct 13 does not come with a digital code and apart from the trailer, there are no extras.

If you’re looking for a faithful remake of the 1976 film this isn’t it but the 2005 version is a good action flick with a great cast. Mill Creek’s Assault on Precinct 13 Blu-ray gives us quite good audio and video at a great price, so if this is up your alley, I’d recommend it.