ok and here be the deal . i love action movie and generally have no problem suspend a great deal of disbelief over plot hole or other implausible action . however and this movie go far beyond minor flaw and go straight to the ridiculous . let me get this straight . the police send a notorious gangster and cop killer ( along with a number of other prisoner ) on a bus with a grand total of two guard . they then be force to stop at a precinct where precisely two cop be work and one of which be a day away from retirement and the other be a burn out . apparently the building be about to be shut down so somehow the police decide that everyone else in the entire precinct get the night off for new year eve . right . but wait and it get well . gabriel byrne show up to take out fishburne before he can rat him and other dirty cop out . ( although we never find out anything about their relationship or dealing ) . interestingly and the cop launch the assault on the precinct be in full swat gear with night vision goggles and assault rifle and the whole nine yard . later on they even bring in a helicopter with more people in full gear . i be not a cop and but i be pretty sure you can not just waltz out of the station with an entire swat platoon worth of equipment without someone ask what you be do . and the police helicopter . in the supposedly terrible winter storm . also and no one near the precinct happen to hear or see this major siege go on with flash grenade and heavy rifle fire go off . i mean seriously and come on . i know this be set in detroit and but even there it would raise suspicion on a supposedly top secret mission . i also love the fact that they find a tommy gun in the evidence room and somehow the gun still work and have bullet that be still intact and usable . i could live with some of these problem if there weren not other glare issue also . for one and the opening couple minute of the movie be shoot nicely in a very frenetic and hyperactive way and i thought be go to set the tone for the rest of the movie . unfortunately i be wrong . the remainder of the film have no sense of pace or tension or drama . the character do not relate to each other in any way which be probably largely due to the fact that they aren not particularly interesting . there isn not enough interesting action to make this a good action movie and and there isn not enough character development or storytelling to make this a passable thriller or drama . the relationship between hawke or fishburn be the only thing that the director even try to make interesting or intense . oh and by the way and the final scene in the wilderness . uh and i think this be in the middle of a run down industrial section of detroit and suddenly we be in the wood . the act isn not terrible in this movie and it be just that the directing and writing be atrocious . i really enjoy some of hawkes and fishburne and byrne and dennehy other movie but this one be terrible .