It was pretty darned good. Fishburne is a bad, bad man. Ethan Hawke was outstanding. As far as remakes go, I consider it better than Carpenters version, plus I actually SAW the movie.

Kewelness, tho very short "review". ;)

How's the pacing on this one? I liked the original, but felt it sort of lacked. I've only seen it twice and the last time was about a year or so ago late at night working Midshift, so was somewhat distracted. However, I'm thinking the pacing was somewhat slow and would have made for a better movie, especially in the middle sections.

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Jeffrey Griffin
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I hear they don't really address the "modern" phenomenon of cell phones, e-mails, and faxes in this "updated" version?

Jeffery, The film was very tense once the badguys show up. When there are lulls in the station, the cops and criminals are at each others throats. Overall, the acting is very good, a marked difference from the early version. The first part of the movie gives the background as to why Ethan Hawkes character is a burnout. My wife liked the movie also and she commented about the tension also. Did I mention Lawrence Fishburne is a Bad man?

I hear they don't really address the "modern" phenomenon of cell phones, e-mails, and faxes in this "updated" version?

Scott, you heard wrong. If somebody says that, they didn't pay attention to a plot element that was set in their lap. Every character in the place tried their cell phones, the phone lines were cut and the power too. BTW, the guys on the outside of the building were professionals. Isolating people was their job.

Overall, the acting is very good, a marked difference from the early version.

I'm glad to hear the remake was enjoyable, but I disagree about the acting in the original. The guys that played the cop and the crook in the original were pretty good IMHO, especially when compared to other seventies film. And the ice cream scene with the girl from "Land of the Lost" was genuinely shocking at the time. And I liked the tough husky-voiced secretary, again, different from most female characters in seventies films.

Does anybody else think that the Napoleon Wilson character from the original "Assault..." and Snake Pliskin seem like the same character.

Does anybody else think that the Napoleon Wilson character from the original "Assault..." and Snake Pliskin seem like the same character.


Only because they're both anti-heroes. Wilson was a violent ruthless criminal with a rigid moral code(and a sense of humor), a character that goes all the way back to Cagney & Bogie.

Plissken was a disillusioned war hero, and when "EFNY" debuted that was a pretty novel idea. In 1980 there were very few (if any movies) with a military hero, in most films of the seventies a military character was either evil or incompetant.

In the book he lost his eye in a glider attack on Russia that turned out to be a botched mission that the big-wigs knew was probably too heavily defended to succeed. William Gibson must have been a fan too, he lifted the same idea as a major plot point almost identically in his brilliant first novel "Neuromancer".