Assault On Precinct 13 DVD Review

It's almost a rule of thumb these days that the more average the film, then the better the presentation. No change here. It's a great looking print, devoid of dirt or scratches. The transfer copes with the dark scenes (which they nearly all are) very well. The film has nice deep blacks, good colour levels and minimal edge enhancement. There's a smattering of grain but it's no big deal. Everything in the picture looks clean, sharp and detailed. It's a high quality transfer.

It's an engaging DTS soundtrack. Being an action film you would expect a noisy affair that utilises all the channels and it doesn't disappoint. It's got good surround work. Bullets whizz past your head and hit bodies with crunchy meaty noises, machine guns bark, and the explosions have a good bass driven feel. The dialogue is always clear, and there's subtle ambient work during the quiet bits. You'll miss the original's score if you're a John Carpenter fan though, as his synth pulses rack up tension far better than the musical work here.

There's several 'making of' affairs including an HBO special. The specialised featurettes cover stunts, weapons and production design. They're passable, with the weapons one being the most interesting, giving you a proper look at the hi-tech weapons from the film. The rest of the 'making ofs' just give you the usual brown-nosing soundbites.

The deleted scenes are banal for the most part, apart from one that I reckon would have fitted in the film quite well, expanding on the ruthlessness of Gabriel Byrne's character. He's barely in the film, so an extra scene wouldn't have gone amiss.
A straight to DVD film masquerading as an A-list title. It could have been a taut, cold hearted thriller; instead it's a saggy, meandering nonentity. Still, worth a rental if you're a fan of noisy gunplay.