Who will get the most Oscar nominations? Who will be the talk of Sundance? Who cares? Let’s talk about Drea de Matteo in fishnets, several of the loudest shotguns in the history of cinema, and a screenplay that describes a crack head “sweating like Mike Tyson at a spelling bee.” The time is just right for a lean, no-nonsense film about people bashing the living hell out of each other. Any time would be a good time for “Assault on Precinct 13,” a neat little bone-breaker of a movie, but there’s something especially satisfying about it turning up during the post-holiday doldrums.

The crackhead in question is played by John Leguizamo (Beck), one of a half-dozen actors getting big kicks from silly roles in “Assault on Precinct 13.” Beck is among the inmates locked up during a New Year’s Eve snowstorm at the eponymous edifice, a dank, dubiously secure police station on the outskirts of Detroit. Jabbing away the next cell over from Beck is busted black-marketed Smiley (Jeffrey Atkins, aka Ja Rule); gang-banger Anna, who’s innocent – she swears! and Marion Bishop (Lawrence Fishburne), the baddest mofo in the Motor City underworld.

On the other side of the bars are Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke), a young cop haunted by a botched undercover operation that left several of his colleagues dead; Alex Sabain (Maria Bello), his foxy, obnoxious shrink; boozy old-timer Jasper O’Shea (Brian Dennehy), and office slut Iris Ferry (Ms. Matteo). Surely, at some point in the project, there was also a jive-ass janitor (Bernie Mac?), token gay (Neil Patrick Harris?), and ready-to-be-menaced child (Dakota Fanning?), but, sadly, they have not made the final cut.

No matter: There is Gabriel Byrne relishing his part as Marcus Duvall, a crooked cop who masterminds the assault on Precinct 13 in order to kill Bishop and anyone else who can finger him and his cronies. Why the most notorious criminal in the Detroit underground has been locked up in a prison you could break out of with a Q-tip is partly explained by weather, partly by police incompetence, but mostly by the needs of the premise.

Adapted from the classic 1976 cult flick by the great John Carpenter, the neat idea of “Assault” is to throw a bunch of heavily armed people in a building and have another group of heavily armed people try to break in and kill them. In the original, the besieged cops decide to release and arm their prisoners in order to help fend off a street gang. By making the bad guys crooked cops, the remake puts a smart spin on the central tension of precarious, situational loyalties.

When will Bishop make his getaway move? Is there a mole inside the precinct? Can Jake keep tabs on all the shifting allegiances under his roof? Whose bones is Iris going to jump? James DeMonaco’s screenplay keeps these pulp-fiction dilemmas tense and focused within the parameters of his routine material. “Assault on Precinct 13″is corny but unpretentious, familiar but satisfying, small-scale but big fun.

A lot of the credit goes to first-time French director Jean-Francois Richet, who respects the source material, updates it with care, and drives it home very, very hard. (The nation that invented the idea of auteurism has long admired the aesthetic integrity and political acumen of Mr. Carpenter’s movies.) Other than a computer-assisted “crane” shot, his movie is refreshingly CGI-free; “Assault on Precinct 13” remembers that good editing and camera placement create the best effects.

***

Needless to say, the gruff pleasures of “Assault” will not please every nervous system. Delicate types – and anyone who appreciates measured, sensitive storytelling – are directed to “Machuca,” a lovely coming-of-age tale opening today at Film Forum.

“Machuca” observes the political turmoil of 1973 Chile through the eyes of two young boys. Gonzalo (Matais Quer) is freckle-faced, intellectual, comfortably middle-class. Pedro Machuca (Ariel Mateluna) is dark-featured, disadvantaged, a child from the shantytown. They meet at an upscale private school, become friends, and tentatively start exploring each other’s side of the tracks.

Working from a relaxed, observant script, director Andres Wood dramatizes class tensions without being didactic or dull. “Machuca” is about people first, politics second, and it’s a smart enough movie to sense that the latter can only become meaningful when the former are alive to the imagination.

The inequalities between the two boys – of clothing, academic advantage, comforts of home – are never played to make easy points, but worked into the texture of a budding friendship, with its natural strains of mutual curiosity, envy, and fluctuating self-esteem. There’s a sly scene where Gonzalo enjoys a sense of camaraderie with the Machuca family as they sell flags and cigarettes at a right-wing rally, then happily tags along when they move on to work “the real demonstration” – a socialist rally.

The appearance of Pedro’s older sister Silvana (Manuela Martelli) adds an awareness of sex to the boys’ stirring consciousness. Along the not-so romantic shores of a dirty stream, they practice kissing as the art of passing condensed milk between their mouths like newborn birds. It’s a charming scene, at once sensual and naive, idyllic and sad. They’re alive to the moment but oblivious to tomorrow. And tomorrow is going to be rough.

On September 11, 1973, right-wing military dictator Augusto Pinochet overthrew the socialist Allende government with help from the CIA. In its final scenes, “Machuca” gives us a deft, wrenching picture of a society tipping into betrayal and incivility. Yet Mr. Wood isn’t interested in pointing fingers, laying blame, or valorizing the proletariat. He simply cares about this place, at this time, and the people and emotions that were a part of it. The accomplishment of his film is to make the audience care as well.

“Machuca” until February 1 (209 W. Houston Street, between Sixth Avenue and Varick, 212-727-8110).