The phrase ?cult classic? has been used to describe the original ?Assault on Precinct 13,? John Carpenter?s 1976 urban Western about cops and criminals banding together inside a police station against a multicultural siege of gang members.

This new ?Assault on Precinct 13? is a classic, too ? a classic example of remaking a movie by making it bigger, louder and more obvious. It?s a phenomenon that has stretched across every genre in recent memory: horror (?Dawn of the Dead?), comedy (?Shall We Dance??), sci-fi (?The Stepford Wives?) and adventure (?Around the World in 80 Days?).

Actually, calling this a remake isn?t entirely accurate, because it resembles the original in title and little else.

The premise is vaguely similar to that of Carpenter?s film, which itself was inspired by Howard Hawks? 1959 movie ?Rio Bravo? starring John Wayne, Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson: The good guys and bad guys must join forces inside an abandoned police precinct, on the night it?s about to close, to fight an onslaught from the outside.

The action has been moved from sunny, arid Los Angeles to Detroit in a blinding New Year?s Eve snowstorm, perhaps an attempt by French director Jean-Francois Richet to obscure the muddled action sequences.

But the attackers and their motivation are completely different. In a feeble effort at relevance, screenwriter James DeMonaco has made the police themselves the bad guys ? corrupt cops using their high-tech SWAT gear to bust in and take out an organised crime leader (Laurence Fishburne) who had been their secret partner but now threatens to expose them. (To see this ripped-from-the-headlines angle played out far more powerfully, check out Michael Chiklis and Co. on the FX series ?The Shield.?)

Fishburne, intimidating as usual as Marion Bishop, brings us to the next major difference: the stars. The new movie is packed with them, though they represent such a random cross-section of the acting world, it?s like watching a very special episode of ?The Love Boat,? only with gunfire and explosions.

Here we have Ethan Hawke as Sgt. Jake Roenick, a former narcotics officer who?s now working a desk job after an undercover assignment turned out hideously. It?s as if his idealistic ?Training Day? character grew up and turned sour.

There?s Brian Dennehy as your stereotypical drunk, Irish cop on the brink of retirement. Drea de Matteo, apparently borrowing clothes from her days as mob moll Adriana on ?The Sopranos,? shows up in fishnets and spiky boots to play Iris, the oversexed police secretary (with, you know, a heart of gold). And wait ? isn?t that rapper Ja Rule, playing a jailed street hustler named Smiley?

Part of what gave the original its cult-classic status was its cast of unknowns; it was like discovering something small and unexpected. There?s nothing small or unexpected in this film, with its jump cuts and jumpy hand-held camerawork to make you feel as if you?re running through the dark police precinct halls, too.

Richet also takes us inside the dirty cops? heads to explain to us why they?re doing what they?re doing ? especially their leader, played with singular sleaziness by Gabriel Byrne ? but the threat was more daunting in Carpenter?s film when it was vague.

One scene was carried over from the original, though: an extended attack in which seemingly every window is shot out, and the people trapped inside the precinct huddle for protection. The first time around, the tension had been building slowly to this point, and the barrage itself played out wordlessly and without music ? just the steady ping of bullets piercing the building from every angle, which made you hold your breath.

This time around, it?s all deafening blasts, competing with an overbearing, overdramatic score.

Subtlety? That?s just old school, man.

?Assault on Precinct 13,? a Rogue Pictures release, is rated R for strong violence and language throughout, and for some drug content. Running time: 110 minutes.