To truly enjoy "Assault on Precinct 13," you are going to have to ignore a few things about its setting.

This is Detroit, in Director Jean-François Richet's eyes. The film, which originally took place in Los Angeles in John Carpenter's 1976 version, has changed locations to provide a glimpse into the apparently dead city that has never made good in cinema form. For Richet, Detroit is a bitterly dismal no man's land, full of corrupt cops, gunfights and minority criminals.

Ethan Hawke stars as Detroit police Sgt. Jake Roenick, who spends New Year's Eve closing down a deteriorating precinct on the outskirts of the city's downtown. Although this is the eve of 2005, characters mention attending a game at Tiger Stadium (which closed in 1999) and read a copy of the Detroit Free Press from 2003.

It's not that there was no research done before filming - the Detroit police cars are authentic, the precinct has a few cool Red Wings signs and Jake makes a bad Lions' reference - but not enough to convince me they spent quality time in Motown.

Then we have a cast of ridiculously annoying prisoners, who are brought to the precinct when their bus is rerouted because of heavy snow. As they realize they're being attacked by outside snipers, who are after prisoner Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne), the painfully self-aware dialogue begins.

Smiley, an unconvincing tough guy incarcerated for fraud, is played by Ja Rule. He talks in third person ("Smiley don't play that") and makes decisions as stupid as the actor's own to start a movie career. I know record label Murder Inc. likes to send their cronies into Hollywood, but Ja Rule? The former film headache "The Fast and the Furious," should already have hinted at his lack of dramatic talent.

Despite this, audiences will not be disappointed with perpetual badass Fishburne and his co-star Hawke, who give great performances as a notorious cop-killer and disillusioned officer. They share a certain love-hate relationship with its own share of enjoyable, if not laugh-out-loud funny, lines.

With a little rearranging, "Assault on Precinct 13" could have been a better film. The bloody gun battles are raw enough to label this a good action flick, but the story is marred by stereotypical characters and weak acting.

However, if you like watching brains fly out of someone's head, this is the film for you.