The opening scene reminded me of Narc, with the way the scene was shot, on a handheld, with NYPD Blues-like motion, shootout and chase. However, this film lacked the sophistication nor intriguing storyline that Narc offered.
Ethan Hawke plays a cop suffering from the guilt of a failed undercover mission which saw 2 of his colleagues die. Lawrence Fishburne, on the other hand, plays a cop-killer mafiaso type, who initially I thought was playing Morpheus all over again, with his pseudo-philosophy sounding character.
The premise of the movie is simple enough, nothing more than your usual actioner. A cop-killer is caught and while being transported with other baddies to a secure jailhouse, the severe new year's eve blizzard brings them to Detriot's Precinct 13 for a temporal lockup. Corrupt cops who want the cop-killer dead for their own selfish reasons, plan and try to storm Precinct 13, kill everyone, and put the blame on thugs.
Since Precinct 13 is on the verge of a closure for good, the limited manpower (count: 3 cops and 1 psychologist) have to cooperate with the jailbirds (count: 4), and vice versa, to make it out alive against a group of corrupt cops (count: 33 or so) with high tech weaponry (night vision goggle, sniper rifles, assault rifles etc). Sort of like Panic Room, where you're held up in a confined space, while the villains try and infiltrate.
Character building is practical zero - we have one dimensional characters, and whatever limited characters we know of, just adds to the body count. Faceless, dialogue-less characters also add to death in creative ways. But hey, it's a no-brainer action movie, so keep your expectations down (sorry, it's Oscar season)
The only theme being explored here, if at all, is the theme of responsibility. Ethan Hawke has and understands his responsibility as Precinct team leader to keep his teammates, and those under his custody, alive, even if it means sleeping with the enemy, figuratively. While on the flip side, we have a corrupt cop (led by Gabriel Byrne) wanting to keep his end of the bargain in maintaining and protecting his corrupt team from prosecution, if Fishburne makes it to the courthouse alive.
Standard action flick with a minor twist at the end to facilitate the plot.
