Video Review: 'Assault on Precinct 13' (1994)

Before he made history with Halloween, John Carpenter directed this riveting low-budget update of Rio Bravo (with urban gangs and a near-deserted L.A. cop station replacing the Old West). Unfortunately, few but genre aficionados took much notice, and a subsequent videotape version was bleached out and badly cropped. For its laserdisc debut, however, Assault on Precinct 13 has been restored to its original wide-screen grandeur, and as a treat, Carpenter comments nonstop on a second audio track — mostly film-geek stuff, like pointing out four different locations in one shot, but interesting nonetheless. A terrific disc. A