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ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 A classic Cowboys and Indians scenario, "Precinct" marked John Carpenter's second feature as a director and, to an extent, it was one the films that put him on the map. Drawing from classic westerns like "Rio Bravo," the movie worked its inventive plot to impressive ends, despite low production values. In the 2005 version, everything - from the cast to the stunts - is state of the art. Ethan Hawke stars as Jake Roenik, a former narcotics officer who, after a botched undercover drug bust, has taken a middling desk job with the force. Moving the action from Los Angeles to Detroit, "Precinct" opens with a harrowing scene that looks as if it was lifted from a grittier, more intense movie (something like Hawke's 2001 film, "Training Day." Hawke opens the film, seemingly as a verbose junkie drug dealer, bargaining with two stiff-lipped foreigners. When the foreigners get wind that they're dealing with cops, the bullets fly and the chase is on. Although "Precinct" is never as taut and gripping throughout as it is in that opening scene - which is shot in grainy DV and has a jumpy, nervousness to the filming - the film achieves a welcome, steady rhythm throughout. Tweaking some aspects of the original plot, in the remake, the attacking gang is a group of dirty cops. When the most notorious crime boss in the city, played by Laurence Fishburne, is apprehended, Detroit's organized crime unit is the first group on the scene. Knowing the top criminal is a major threat to their well being, they head out into the snowy night to assassinate him before he ever has the opportunity to testify against them. The silliest plot line in the film is probably the initial transport scenario for Fishburne's convict. Sending him across town in a rickety old school bus, along with a few petty criminals and two cops, the city's not-so-secure unit has to pull off the road and seek sanctuary at Hawke's rundown precinct. The easy ambush is then set, as Gabriel Byrne (who plays the top cop of the organized crime unit) and his boys in blue, descend. With Laurence Fishburne hamming it up as a ruthless but charismatic Mafia don - at one point he teaches Drea de Matteo's secretary how to render an attacker defenseless by crushing his Adam's Apple - and entertaining supporting turns from actors like John Leguizamo and Brian Dennehy, "Assault" is good, bloody fun. Grade: B+
COACH
CARTER Preachy, unsurprising and predictable as it is, "Coach Carter" is working off a true story that is, on some level, more palatable and interesting than many of its predecessors. Unlike "Dangerous Minds," which delivered the preposterous idea that inner-city kids could overcome violence, poverty and indifference with the help of a sexy white woman who taught them the joys of reading Dylan Thomas, "Coach Carter" spins its tale of redemption around a more believable base: basketball. And, although the outcome is far too simplistic, the ride is more fun. "Stand and Deliver" by way of "Miracle," this rousing story is based on a California high school basketball coach who made headlines in 1999 when he benched his entire team for their poor academic performances. Demanding his players maintain a 2.3 grade point average, Carter raised an uproar in the community when he shut down the popular basketball program.
In the film Carter, played by Samuel L. Jackson, is a successful local businessman, and graduate of the troubled school, who's convinced to take on the low-paying, time-consuming side job by a sense of obligation. Hoping to turn a losing team into a winning one, and discipline a group of wayward boys without much hope for their futures, Carter walks on to the court with little chance of earning his players respect. The first victory happens on the court. Taking a page from Herb Brooks (the hockey coach Russell played in "Miracle," who brought the U.S. hockey team to an Olympic gold metal victory in 1980), Carter begins by simply exhausting his players. If they cross him, interrupt him or show up late they're forced to run endless suicides and do push-ups. The intense workouts brings the team closer but, more importantly, allows them to outlast more skilled opponents on the court. The second half of the film focuses on the thing that brought Carter notoriety: his decision to lock up the gym and send his players to the library. The message that Jackson's Carter articulates, repeatedly (and suffers for - local hooligans throw a brick through his sport goods store's front window), is of course a provocative one: letting high school kids play basketball with no care if they graduate is, on so many levels, wrong. Repeatedly touting the term "student athlete" as a lost phrase - an idea articulated in a news clip where Bob Costas talks about the benched high school players on TV - Carter brings to light a problem infecting sports at all levels. And, while the bad behavior of professional athletes is one thing (whether they're fighting with fans or gloating over a dunk or touchdown), the difficulties become more complex at the high school and college level. In many ways "Coach Carter" crudely says what "Hoop Dreams" so heartbreakingly revealed. Young, poor, black kids from the inner city are too often betrayed by the very thing that is touted as their salvation. In the world of "Coach Carter," the important thing is simply getting to college. He fights a school system that assumes the majority of its students, basketball players or not, won't graduate and even fewer will go on to college. But while "Coach Carter" ends on a high note, the real tragedy is often the story that continues. The one of the two central characters in "Hoop Dreams," both of whom went on to college, and both of whom became lost in a world where they weren't quite as fast, or as good, as the competition.
Without a hope of becoming an NBA player what does a kid with no academic
background, who may have even maintained a 2.0 GPA, do next? |
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