THIS remake of John Carpenter's 1976 celebrated thriller has received its own share of rotten reviews, so I understandably trod towards Ster Century cinema with a lot of apprehension and not much enthusiasm.

But in a week when supposed big-hitters Ocean's Twelve and Ray were disappointing, Assault on Precinct 13 2005-style turned out to be the - albeit surprisingly - sharpest and brightest time I spent at the movies all week.

Kicking off with a nicely dramatic set-piece, which presents the traumatic back story of our central good cop Jake (Ethan Hawke), some Se7en-esque opening titles then do their bit to grip an audience from the start.

Moving forward eight months, we then see Hawke packing up the last of the soon-to-be-defunct Precinct 13 on New Year's Eve, where he has been working.

With only old cop Jasper (Brian Dennehy) and secretary Iris (Drea de Matteo) for company during a crazy snow storm, the trio are well on their way to getting sozzled when they're disrupted by the arrival of a few prisoners who have been rerouted as a result of the bad weather.

A mixed bag of minor leaguers with the exception of mega-crim Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne), the latter's presence then triggers the beginning of the titular assault, as masked armed men suddenly surround the precinct with the aim of completely "taking out" those inside.

Basically, the innovation of this retread has been to make the baddies into members of the police force, intent on taking out Fishburne to protect their own backs.

Aside from that, it may not vary much from the thriller norm, but it ends up as a vigorous and often very exciting example of the genre, which can quite ably stand on its own feet.

Some of the kills are nicely unexpected - a rarity these days - and there are certainly enough moments which will induce a gasp or even a necessary moment of peeping through your fingers.

Well worth a watch, this is solidly entertaining stuff.