ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976) (Second Sight Blu-ray Review)

ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976)
40th Anniversary Edition Limited Edition Boxset 

Label: Second Sight Films
Release Date: November 28th 2016 
Region Code: Region B Locked 
Duration: 91 Minutes
Rating: 15 Certificate (Uncut) 
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Uncompressed PCM Original Mono with Optional English SDH Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Nancy Loomis, Tony Burton, Peter Franklin, Charles Cypher

John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 is a stone-cold cult-classic executed with near gritty perfection by one of cinema's great genre directors. On a fateful night in Los Angeles three disparate elements converge on the decommissioned police station Precinct 13. What transpires is a white-knuckle thrill ride packed with claustrophobic atmosphere and sweaty tension, a cult-classic in the truest sense of the phrase.

Newly promoted Lieutenant Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker, Horror High) is assigned to oversee the decommissioning of a police during its last few hours of operation. The skeleton crew staffing the station are Captain Chaney (Henry Brandon, The War of the Worlds), the station's two cute, sweater-bound secretaries, Leigh (Laurie Zimmer, A Dirty Story) and Julie (Nancy Loomis, Halloween), plus Lt. Bishop. It seems like a pretty easy gig from the onset but things have a way of turning bad real quick when you least expect it. 

Things  seems mundane for Bishop and the crew for the first few hours of their shift until a correctional bus transporting three prisoners arrives at the station seeking medical attention for one of the inmates who has fallen ill. Also on the bus is a notorious murderer named Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston, Eraserhead) who is on his way to Death Row, plus inmates Wells (Tony Burton, The Magnificent Seven), and Caudell (Peter Franklin, The Puppet Master), correctional officer Starker (Charles Cyphers, Escape from New York) and the driver of the bus.

On the same night not far away the warlords of multiracial L.A. gang Street Thunder have declared war on the city Los Angeles in retaliation for for the death of a few of their own who were ambushed by the LAPD earlier in the night. They thugs drive through the streets of the city looking for random victims when they happen upon an ice cream truck driver parked on the side of the street. They open fire, in the aftermath a young girl (Kim Richards, Escape from Witch Mountain) lays dead in the street. This is still such a shocking scene of violence, even after many watches this still packs a visceral punch to it. The grieving an enraged father of the young girl pursues the gang through the streets, eventually catching-up to them and killing one of the warlords. Now on foot he is chased by the remaining gang members, winding up on the steps of the 13th Precinct. Once inside he collapses and is unable to relay what has happened, without warning the gang lay siege to the precinct beginning with a spray of silenced gunfire killing several officers and a few prisoners in very short order.

With the power and communications cut off and with precious few alternatives left to him Bishop unchains the surviving prisoners in a desperate attempt to thwart certain death. The movie is a bit slow to start as the three story lines slowly converge but once the white-knuckle action sets in it never slows down. The tension is oppressive as the good guys find themselves somewhat hopelessly holed-up in the precinct with very few weapons, cut off from the world and with no help on the way they must fight or die. Bishop and his ragtag crew don't seem to have a snowball's chance in Hell of surviving this urban skirmish, at times it does start to feel like Carpenter borrowed a page from George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) in that respect, but maybe that is just because I've never watched Rio Bravo (1959) on which this is largely patterned

Assault on Precinct 13 was John Carpenter's first movie, unless you count the sci-fi comedy Dark Star which he co-directed with Dan O'Bannon (Return of the Living Dead). It's early stuff but already we can see many of what would become known as his trademarks, creating a very real sense of isolation and dread and a realistic approach to urban action. The movie is nicely shot in the super wide Carpenter-Vision (2.35) aspect ratio with a sweet Carpenter synth-score, which features a totally bad ass main theme that immediately sets a dark urban tone, I think outside of the Halloween main theme this is one of Carpenter's most recognizable pieces of music. 

The cast is superb, the wry relationship between Lt. Bishop and killer Napoleon is fun stuff, particularly Joston as the wise cracking antihero always asking to bum a smoke from everyone. He's right up there with Snake Plissken (Escape from New York) as one of Carpenter's most iconic anti-hero figures and the wry banter back and forth between the two makes for great viewing. While not a huge role the hypnotic Laurie Zimmer appears as one of the sexy sweater-bound secretaries trapped in the precinct and there's some tasty sexual tension between her character and the killer Napoleon. The actress has a certain Lauren Bacall type charm about her with cool demeanor and stunning blue eyes, not to mention the woman can really rock a sweater. 

Blu-ray: Assault of Precinct 13 (1975) comes to UK Blu-ray from Second Sight Films with a fantastic 1080p HD widescreen (2.35:1) transfer. Colors are vibrant with strong black levels, a few of the darker scenes can be a bit grainy but overall this looks wonderful with some nice crisp texture and fine detail. I do believe this is the same HD master as was used by US distributor Scream Factory for their Collector's Edition Blu-ray with some additional clean-up and restoration work performed by Second Sight to remove additional dirt and scratches and the results are wonderful, the movie has never looked better on Blu-ray. 

The disc comes with English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and an uncompressed PCM Original Mono mix for the purist. Dialogue comes through crisp and clean, and the snarling John Carpenter synth-driven score sounds superb. The surround is predominantly front heavy but the surround does open it up a bit, particularly with the score bleeding into the surrounds. Optional English subtitles are provided. 

Second Sight have put together an epic 4oth Anniversary edition of the movie licensing all the Scream Factory extras including two audio commentaries and throwing in a few more. We have the original John Carpenter commentary which is still one of my favorite non-Kurt Russell commentaries from Carpenter. The second commentary is with Art Director and Sound Effects Editor Tommy Lee Wallace which is moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures. Wallace has some great stories to tell about collaboration with Carpenter, the different locations and his career making movies. Michael Felsher does a great job keeping the conversation on track and interesting.

Another carry-over from the Scream Factory release is the 2002 interview with Carpenter and star Austin Stoker after a screening of the film at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Carpenter fields questions from the audience and touches on the origins of the movie and what it was like shooting is first solo-directed feature. Carpenter is funny with some fun anecdotes, including one on how he skirted an x-rating from the MPAA. He also touches on his influence on filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, recording the score and his post Dark Star relationship with the now late Dan O'Bannon. Also carried over are the Red Shirt produced video interviews with actors Nancy Loomis and Austin Stoker adding up to about 35-minutes. Stoker goes into his early careers and working with Carpenter on the film, a particular scene he'd like to go back and switch-up a bit. Loomis also touches on her early career, Carpenter's original plan to make a western, the location, her character and life after acting plus the whole convention experience.

Second Sight have also included three brand-new video interviews produced by Severin Films for this release. We get new interviews with Austin Stoker (10 Mins), Producer Joseph Kaufman (16 Mins) and Tommy Lee Wallace (22 Mins) all recorded in 2016. Exclusive to this release is the inclusion of John Carpenter's early student films, the eight-minute short 'Captain Voyeur' which was unearthed by archivist Dino Everett at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Now honestly this is not some lost Carpenter masterpiece but the rough short does feature some of the themes we've come to associate with the director. The short follows the ill-fated adventure of a peeping-tom over the course of a night. Extras on the disc are finished-up with a trailer, radio spots and a weird French documentary 'Do You Remember Laurie Zimmer?' (2003) in which filmmaker Charlotte Szlovak attempts to find the elusive actress who seemingly fell of the face of the earth shortly after this movie. 

We were sent only a 'check disc' for this release but the limited edition box set also includes five art cards and a bonus CD soundtrack of the menacing Carpenter score. This is a mighty stacked Blu-ray with loads of cool extras, Second Sight have put a lot of love into this Carpenter cult-classic. 

Limited Edition Special Features
- Newly Restored from High Definition 1080p Transfer
- DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Uncompressed PCM Original Mono Audio Options
- Return to Precinct 13: A new Interview with Austin Stoker (10 Mins) 
- Producing Precinct 13: A new Interview with Joseph Kaufman (16 Mins) 
- Filmmaking with John: A new interview with Tommy Lee Wallace (22 Mins) 
- Captain Voyeur: John Carpenter student short (Blu-ray exclusive) (8 Mins) 
- Do You Remember Laurie Zimmer documentary film (Blu-ray exclusive) (54 Mins) 
- Interview with John Carpenter and Austin Stoker (23 Mins) 
- The Sassy One with Nancy Loomis (13 Mins) 
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director John Carpenter
- Audio Commentary with Tommy Lee Wallace moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures 
- Trailer (2 Mins) HD 
- Radio Spots (1 Mins) 
- 5 Art Cards (Limited Edition box set exclusive)
- Bonus CD Soundtrack Disc (Limited Edition box set exclusive)

Assault On Precinct 13 (1976) is an action-packed white knuckler that starts off a bit slow but once things pick-up this siege classic proves to be one Hell of a tense ride. Second Sight have knocked it out of the park with their 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Boxset, this is the definitive version of the movie, this is the one to own. highly recommended. 

SHEBA, BABY (1975) (Arrow Video Blu-ray Review)

SHEBA, BABY (1975)

Label: Arrow Video
Region Code: Region FREE
Duration: 90 Minutes
Rating: PG
Audio: English LPCM Mono 1.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: William Girdler
Cast: Pam Grier, D’Urville Martin, Austin Stoker

No woman was more badass in the '70s than Pam Grier, a fierce black woman who dripped sensuality and kicked some major baddie-ass. She started off in a string of AIP women-in-prison flicks with director Jack Hill before becoming the AIP action-queen in a series of sweet blaxploitation movies which are still adored by cult-cinema lovers. Unfortunately Pam never did attain the leading lady status she deserved outside of the American International Pictures b-movie grinder, it wouldn't be until her turn in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown that she received the proper leading role deserved by someone of her caliber, but her seventies movies with AIP as an ass-kicking woman of the '70s were pretty badass and are a blast to re-visit. Even some of the lesser entries manage to entertain despite weak material - the lady had class, charisma and was drop-dead gorgeous.

Sheba, Baby is one of the lesser entries, it stars Grier as a Chicago private eye returning home to Louisville, KY to help defend her father's loan business against a group of low down racketeers who are trying to force him to sell. The story is hackneyed, and it does not help that the movie lacks style and substance. However, Pam Grier is always magnetic and she does her best to carry it through to the end, and for me that's enough to keep me plugged, though the prohibitive PG-rating means it lacks a visceral edge to the violence and no there's an absence nudity.

Like the story the cast of characters are cookie cutter and somewhat stereotypical, we get a selection of roughies and hustlers, including the main villain, a comical D'Urville Martin who is working for a white-devil in the neighborhood. All the baddies just seem silly, each having their asses handed to them by our woman Sheba. Classing up the movie to a degree is the appearance of Austin Stoker from John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 as Brick, the good-guy business partner of Sheba's father. Stoker has some real presence and provides a love interest for Sheba, both he and Grier deserved a better movie. 

There are some decent action sequences, including a car-bombing at the start of the movie and a speed boat chase finale that has an alright harpooning, but the staging of the action is pedestrian and poorly assembled, making this a decent watch for fans of '70s black action cinema, but on the lower-end of the spectrum.

Audio/Video: Sheba, Baby arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Arrow Video in 1080p HD looking very nice, framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. The source was in good shape, a few white specks here and there but otherwise no print damage. There's a nicely managed layer of fine film grain, some modest depth and decent clarity to the image. The Mono LPCM audio is clean and crisp, the funky score sounds nice, and there are optional English subtitles included. 

Onto the extras we start with two audio commentaries, the first from producer-screenwriter David Sheldon, moderated by critic Nathaniel Thompson from Mondo Digital, plus a second one from Patty Breen, the webmaster of WilliamGirdler.com. 

Arrow Video have also included a pair featurettes, beginning with "Sheldon: Baby" a new interview with David Sheldon, who is always a great interview, and he's no different here. The producer speaks about the genesis of the project, the original working titles, his split from AIP and the dissolution of his partnership with director William Girdler following the release of Sheba, Baby. The second is "Pam Grier: The AIP Years" with film historian Chris Poggiali who walks us through the AIP years of Grier. Additionally we have a image gallery, theatrical trailer for the movie, and a booklet  new writing on the film by Patty Breen, illustrated with archive stills and posters. While I don't think that Sheba Baby is a top tier Pam Grier movie I do love all the work that Arrow Video have put into each of the Grier movies they've brought to Blu-ray these past few years, collectors and fans need this one in their collection.

 Special Features:
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Original mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary with producer-screenwriter David Sheldon, moderated by critic Nathaniel Thompson 
- Audio commentary with Patty Breen, webmaster of WilliamGirdler.com
 - Sheldon: Baby – a brand new interview with David Sheldon (15 Mins) HD
- Pam Grier: The AIP Years – a look over the wonder years of the Blaxploitation queen with film historian Chris Poggiali (12 Mins) HD
- Trailer (2 Mins) HD
- Gallery featuring rare publicity images and Lobby Cards (18 Images) HD
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips
- Booklet featuring brand new writing on the film by Patty Breen, webmaster of WilliamGirdler.com, illustrated with archive stills and posters 

A hackneyed story and lack of style do hurt Sheba, Baby (1975), and while it might be on the lower end of Pam Grier's filmography for me this Blu-ray release from Arrow Video is top-notch with a great selection of bonus content, and well-worth the upgrade. 

Blu-ray Review: ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976)

ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976) 

Collector's Edition Blu-ray

Label: Scream Factory / Shout! Factory

Region Code: A

Duration: 91 Minutes

Rating: R

Audio: DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 with Optional English SDH Subtuitles

Video: 1080p Widescreen

Director: John Carpenter

Cast: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Nancy Loomis, Tony Burton, Peter Franklin, Cgarles Cypher 

John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 is deceptively simplistic siege-classic executed with gritty perfection. On a fateful night three disparate elements converge on the titular decommissioned police station in L.A., what transpires is a white-knuckle thriller packed with claustrophobic atmosphere and sweaty tension, definitely a true cult-classic.

Newly promoted Lieutenant Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker, Horror High) is assigned to oversee the decommissioning of a police station during its last few hours, there's only a skeleton crew manning the station; Captain Chaney (Henry Brandon, The War of the Worlds) and the station's two cute, sweater-bound secretaries, Leigh (Laurie Zimmer, A Dirty Story) and Julie (Nancy Loomis, Halloween). It seems like a pretty east gig but things have a way of turning for the worse now don't they? 

Things at the station are pretty low-key until a prison bus transporting three prisoners arrives seeking medical attention for one of the convicts. On this particular bus is the notorious murderer Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston, Eraserhead) on his way to Death Row, he's joined by Wells (Tony Burton, The Magnificent Seven), and Caudell (Peter Franklin, The Puppet Master), plus correctional officer Starker (Charles Cyphers, Escape from New York) and the bus driver. 

At the same time not too far away the warlords of the multi-racial L.A. gang Street Thunder have declared war on the city of Los Angles in retaliation for for the death of its gang members who were ambushed by the LAPD. They drive the streets of the ghetto looking for random victims when they happen upon an ice cream truck driver parked on the side of the street, in the aftermath a young girl lays dead in the street (a shocking scenario!). The young girls enraged father pursues the gang through the streets, eventually catching-up and killing one of the warlords. Now on foot he is chased by the remaining gang members to the 13th Precinct. Once inside he collapses in a state of shock and is unable to relay what is happening. Without warning the gang lay siege to the building beginning with a spray of silenced gunfire killing several officers and prisoners in very short order. 

With the power cut and the phone lines dead and with precious few alternatives Bishop unchains the surviving prisoners in a desperate attempt to thwart certain death. That's pretty much the entire film, it's pretty simple stuff and while it's a bit of a slow start as the three story lines are established once they converge this pot-boiler never looks back. The tension is oppressive as they are holed-up in the precinct with very few weapons, cut off from the world. In contrast the gang have large numbers of armed members with no fear of death, Bishop and his ragtag crew don't seem to have a snowball's chance in Hell of surviving this skirmish. Street Thunder are relentless and unflinching, devoid of humanity, it really does start to feel like a page from George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) in that respect. 

Assault on Precinct 13 was John Carpenter's first feature out of film school but we see many of 

what would become his trademarks, a very real sense of isolation, it's gritty and realistic approach, gorgeously shot in Carpenter-Vision aspect ratio plus we get a sweet Carpenter synth-score featuring a totally bad ass main theme that immediately sets a dark urban tone, it's one of his most recognizable pieces, a stone-cold classic. 

The cast of relative unknowns is very strong, the relationship between Lt. Bishop and Napoleon is fun stuff, particularly Joston as the wise cracking anti-hero always trying to bum a smoke. He's right up there with Snake Plisken (Escape from New York) as one of Carpenter's most iconic anti-hero figures and the wry banter back and forth between the two is great stuff, the two have a great chemistry. Laurie Zimmer appears as one of the secretaries trapped in the precinct and there's some simmering sexual tension between her character and Napoleon, it's a nice touch.

Blu-ray: Assault of Precinct 13 (1975) comes to Blu-ray from Shout Factory horror imprint Scream Factory with a very pleasing 1080p widescreen (2.35:1) transfer, considering the low budget origins of the movie colors are strong and black levels are pretty decent, a few of the darker scenes can be grain heavy but not it's not awful and I welcome a nice health layer pf natural film grain which is what we have here. The elements used for the master were in excellent shape, there were very few instances of print damage, just some minor speckling. 

Om he audio front we have two options, the original DTS-HD Master Audio Mono for the purists and a potent DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix which sounds fantastic. It has more presence and oomph than the 2.0 mono and John Carpenters menacing synth-driven score sounds fantastic, this time around I preferred the 5.1 which while predominantly front heavy does open it up a bit.

Onto the special features we begin with the commentary from the previous DVD edition with John Carpenter, it's still one of my favorite non-Kurt Russel commentaries from Carpenter who goes into great detail about making the movie, budget issues, locations and some great anecdotes, this is a top-notch commentary and it's great to see it carried over. 

Also carried over from the previous DVD release is a 2002 interview with Carpenter and star Austin Stoker following a screening of the film at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, it's good stuff with Carpenter fielding questions from the audience and explaining the origins of the project and what it was like shooting is first solo-directed feature. Carpenter is in fine form here, very funny with some great anecdote about skirting an x-rating from the MPAA, his influence on Tarantino and Guy Richie, recording the score and his post Dark star relationship with Dan O'Bannon.  

Onto the new features we have a new audio commentary from  Art Director and Sound Effects Editor Tommy Lee Wallace moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures, it's another fun with Wallace going into some great stories about collaboration with Carpenter, the different locations and his career. Special features producer Michael Felsher does a great job keeping the track going, prompting Wallace from time to time and asking the questions fans would want to know, good stuff. 

Red Shirt Pictures have also produced two brand-new featurettes with stars Nancy Loomis and Austin Stoker. Stoker goes into his early careers and working with Carpenter on the film, a particular scene he'd like to go back and switch-up a bit. Loomis also touches on her early career, Carpenter's original plan to make a western, the location, her character and life after acting plus the convention experience. 

Extras are finished off with an isolated music score featuring Carpenter's bad-ass synth score, a theatrical trailer, still gallery and radio spots for the film. Scream Factory have done an outstanding job so far with these John Carpenter re-issues on Blu-ray, hope to see more soon!

Special Features:

- Audio Commentary with writer/director John Carpenter
- NEW Audio Commentary with Art Director and Sound Effects Editor Tommy Lee Wallace
- NEW interview with actress Nancy Loomis Kyes (12:43)
- NEW interview with actor Austin Stoker (7:48)
- Interview with John Carpenter and Austin Stoker(23:07)
- Theatrical Trailer (2:03)
- Radio Spots (1:04)
- Gallery (3:20)

Verdict: Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) is a white knuckle cult-thriller, it starts off a bit slow but once things pick-up it's pretty relentless, a siege classic and one Hell of a tense ride. Scream Factory's new Collector's Edition Blu-ray is a top notch presentation, yet another John Carpenter classic gets a sweet 1080p edition with some great value-added extras, a no-brainer, buy it! 4 Outta 5