Did someone spit in your socks?

The low-budget tough-guy flick. They do not really make them anymore....unless you count Steven Seagal and Van Damme movies, and I do not.

John Carpenter's second film, Assault on Precinct 13, is a by-the-numbers tough-guy flick, and it is a good one. Sure, it has some weaknesses; the sets are rather flimsy, the dialog is sometimes awkward ("Did someone spit in your socks?") and the acting is a little on the amateur side. But all that is all okay, because the film is fun.

Carpenter sets up a nice, simple situation, using sparse dialog and efficient camera techniques. This is not a "flashy" film, and the camera moves are never distracting, no odd angles or weird zooms or pans. The plot goes like this: a rookie LA cop is assigned night watch at a near-empty police station. Meanwhile, a small gang of street toughs has been gunned down by some cops, so the survivors and their buddies decide to attack the police station that our hero is babysitting.

Gunfights ensue.

There are a few notable things about our characters. We have two protagonists: the cop, who happens to be a black fellow, and a death-row-bound convict who is locked up in the precinct. The dialog between and among characters is often clunky, and the film leans towards becoming a buddy-picture every now and then, but the two work well together. The gang (the "Cholos") are mostly just a faceless bunch of stuntmen. Wisely, Carpenter decided not to focus much on the race issues, and that keeps the film from becoming the preachy morass that it could have been.

Watch it if you get a chance.

Rating: 3.5