OK, guys, what side of the law are you on?

The main thing this Assault lacks is a point. Carpenter's film, like other action and horror movies of the 1970s, still resonates with the political paranoia and social unease of the era. Carpenter's cynical refusal to distinguish clearly between good guys and bad guys feels freshly unsettling, while Richet's "modernization" looks like something we've seen 100 times before.