A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Starring Ethan Hawke and Lawrence Fishburne and directed by Jean-Francois Richet, this remake of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 never seemed too likely to trouble the box office statisticians, though its performance hasn't been quite as bad as many may have expected, especially given its dire reviews.  I'm not sure I see the point of the movie myself, but perhaps that's just me.  Carpenter's made some fine films (though not recently) but one hugely negative aspect of them for me has always been his own music for them, which I know is hugely popular with many people, but I've always thought it sounds so amateurish that it cheapens films which are otherwise excellent.

On board for the remake is composer Graeme Revell, whose electronic work in the past may have suggested that he might have been tempted to go down the Carpenter route, but fortunately he resisted and employed the forces of The City of Prague Philharmonic (alongside, it must be said, the predictable array of electronics).  Unfortunately things start off with the gangster rap track "Generique Assault" (well, perhaps it's gangster rap - I have no real idea what gangster rap is) performed by popular beat combo Krs-One.  It's an assault on the aural senses in every way, and not a harbinger of particularly promising things to come, but fortunately it is the album's low point by a considerable distance (well, until it is reprised in a "radio edit" later on - unfortunately whoever did the editing didn't manage to edit in any quality).

If truth be told then Revell's score itself doesn't start in the most promising of fashions, with the low-key, dull "Good Morning, Buddy" but things soon pick up as the composer delves into action/suspense territory in fine style.  There are several decent action tracks, with the orchestra's brass section being given a real workout, which are far more adrenaline-filled than Revell typically offers up, with the main drawback being that most of the tracks are so short there is little time for Revell to really do a great deal with his ideas.  In slightly longer tracks when he does have time to develop things a little (the attractively-named "Your Dog is a Dirty Pig", for instance) things really are quite impressive.  While there is little in the way of melody, some of the more dramatic or heroic moments do get quite powerful music, particularly "Hot Wire Girls", one of the score's highlights.

This is an enjoyable and perfectly entertaining album for those who like action scores to have a distinctly dark hue (it must be one of the coldest and abrasive scores in a while), and it works very well indeed.  Revell has been branching out and doing some different things recently, which has certainly been to the good, and Assault on Precinct 13 is a good example of that.  It's no classic, but it's certainly a solid listen.

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Tracks

1. Generique Assault Krs-One (3:45)
2. Good Morning, Buddy (1:48)
3. What's My Line-Up? (2:35)
4. Masked Invaders (3:18)
5. Complex Problems (2:25)
6. Helicopter Delivery (1:35)
7. Deadly Volunteer (1:28)
8. Bishop Arrest (1:51)
9. Party's Over (4:09)
10. Burning Man (1:32)
11. Rescue Capra (1:30)
12. Hot Wire Girls (2:45)
13. Your Dog is a Dirty Pig (3:05)
14. Precinct Breach (2:25)
15. Duvall Showdown (4:34)
16. Generique Assault (radio edit) Krs-One (3:07)