Director: Jean-Francois Richet
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, John Leguizamo, Maria Bello
Have I Seen it Before: No. Oh, no.
Did I Like It: I mean, I want to like every movie I watch as it begins. I really do. But I’ll admit that between my love for the original and my antipathy for really every John Carpenter re-make, I started this one absolutely stone-face, with my arms crossed.
The film had an uphill climb. But there was hope, there. Maybe the fact that Precinct isn’t nearly as universally loved as Halloween (1978) or even The Fog (1980)*, the filmmakers would feel free to create something watchable, and dare I even hope, fresh and interesting.
One can’t imagine that this would be able to harness the ruthless simplicity of the original. That’s probably automatically too much to hope for, as even John Carpenter wasn’t wielding the energy of his earlier work by the time this came around. Years started beginning with “2” and subtlety went right out the window. The plot is over-constructed, which inevitably leads to more dialogue, which inevitably takes away from the action…
And, far more importantly, opens the doors to cliché. While they may attempt to give a bit of a spin to the character eventually**, the moment O’Shea (Brian Dennehy, in case you were wondering what happened to his character after First Blood (1982)) proclaims that he is right on the cusp of retirement, an infant is more than capable of mapping out where his character is going to end up.
And then there’s Jeffrey “Ja Rule” Jenkins. See, kids, this is back in a time when selling copies of the soundtrack album for a film still meant something, and therefore bringing a rapper into the mix. He’s not a bad actor. The role isn’t much, but he’s got a decent screen presence that he isn’t distracting from the rest of the film.
But his end credits theme? I really, really hated it. Not just because the film never bothers to pull from Carpenter’s original score***. It goes beyond the “re-count the plot over the end credits” rap anthem that we’re normally used to, and name checks Hawke, Fishburne, and proceeds to be the most painfully obvious song I’ve ever heard. It may have ended the trend of ending films with these kinds of songs. It may very well have been the last one to include such a song. On that front alone, I guess it is kind of historic.
*I didn’t, but you might have.
**I wouldn’t get too terribly excited: it’s not that much of a spin.
***Try getting away with that kind of nonsense in the Halloween series. I dare you.