Standoff (2016)

Wonderful Movie

Who payed the critics

Too much of everything

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

I have to honestly say that I wasn't expecting very much from this movie when I put it on. It had a solid enough cast - the leads are Laurence Fishburne and Thomas Jane (not spectacular actors in my opinion, but decent enough) - but, still, I wasn't really expecting much out of it. I was surprised - pleasantly. This movie packs a lot into less than an hour and a half and it doesn't use the traditional formula you expect. That was probably why my expectations were low. I was expecting this to be formulaic. A young girl witnesses a mass shooting at a funeral in a cemetery, gets a picture of the shooter and then has to run for her life to get away from him. She finds refuge in a farmhouse with a veteran who swears he'll protect her. You expect guns ablazin' from that point on, but for the most part you don't get it. Don't get me wrong. It is violent at times - and unsettling (especially when Sade, the killer, tortures the cop who had come to the house in a bid to get Carter to give up Bird) - but basically this is a psychological thriller. Sade and Carter talk to each other, taunt each other, try to push each other's buttons. Sade's on the main floor, Carter and Bird are upstairs. Each has a gun. It's a stalemate. You watch it unfold as each tries to get an advantage on the other. You can guess how it's going to end - but you don't know exactly how it's going to get there.I wasn't sure about Fishburne as the killer. Somehow, he didn't fit that role for me - but his performance was extremely good, as was Thomas Jane's as Carter. This was the first time I'd seen Ella Ballentine, who played Bird, and I thought she did a pretty decent job in that role as well. Two things would have made me appreciate this a little more. First, we had no real backstory about the killings. Sade just shows up at the funeral and opens fire. I know that the story was the standoff between Carter and Sade, but I would have appreciated a little bit of knowledge about why the whole situation started. Sade kept referring to his "employer" but we never found out who the employer was, or why Sade had been hired to do the killings. And then the killings themselves. It was a pretty lousy idea, to be honest. Killing people at a cemetery while there's an interment going on? There would have been cemetery workers around, ready to seal the grave when the service was finished. You don't just leave graves open. But even if there weren't for some reason, they'd have to come pretty soon to seal the grave - and they'd surely have been suspicious when they found the grave that they had to close already closed up? So hiding the bodies that way was ridiculous.Still - this is a really good and tense psychological thriller. It's simple and straightforward, shot pretty much entirely in the house. It's a pretty good movie to spend an afternoon with. (7/10)

Better than Leon: the Professional? Yes.I know, that sounds ridiculous, whereas the Peofessional had a good-as-it-gets conflicted bad guy and Standoff unfairly prevails because it has Laurence Fishburne playing a m.o.n.s.t.e.r.I'd highly recommended. It has the quality of Unforgiven but without the Hollywood b.s. ( yes, less b.s. than Unforgiven!). One critique, if id been looking over Adam Alleca's shoulder when he made this masterpiece.... there is a death scene -- a death that should have broken link an arctic sheet -- that fell a bit flat. It was acted perfectly but needed the visual of an optic nerve going slack to really take it over the edge. Just that one-time special effect would have taken the ambiance home.

Standoff (my latest review) kinda reminded me of last year's The Hateful Eight. It's not a Western per se but like "Eight", there's a sense of claustrophobia and a real cat and mouse way about everything. In truth, I liked Standoff better because it only needed eighty minutes to tell its story (whereas Tarantino's film needed almost three, bloated hours to get the job done). Now does that mean I'm garnering a recommendation? Not quite. Standoff's script disappoints because it isn't nearly tight enough. The two lead actors (Thomas Jane and Laurence Fishburne) get saddled with overworked dialogue and ham it up to no end. Yeah I liked the concept of this flick with its wound up tension and reminisce of a one act play. But here's the thing: I just couldn't listen to two testosterone-filled meatheads yell at each other for one more minute. Example of an exchange between these guys: "I gotta a cellphone as*hole." "I know dipsh*t, I'm looking at it." My eyes couldn't stop rolling.Containing one brutal torture scene (you'll never look at a hammer the same way again), filmed on location in Ontario, Canada (it felt like Georgia to me), and featuring a likable child actress in Ella Ballentine, Standoff is violent, unmerciful, and darkly confined. It's like Cujo without the snarling dog or 1990's Misery without good old Kathy Bates. First timer Adam Alleca directs in a clean and skillful manner. He starts things off with a bang by showcasing murders at a cemetery (how convenient). Then he lets everything eventually boil down to a slight creep. There are flashbacks, Larry Fishburne channeling his inner Samuel L. Jackson (with his Zodiac-style mask on you'd swear it was Jules Winnfield himself), blood spattering that looks like paintball wars gone wild, and hate begets hate banter between a couple of sweaty actors. In less than an hour and a half, everything mentioned evaporates as you watch it along with Standoff's scorched scenery and mild cowboy feel. This flick basically "stands" upright but it could have "delivered" a little better. Natch.Anyway, the story is as follows: Bird (Ballentine) is a young girl who is quiet, mild-mannered, and loves to take pictures. Within the film's first ten minutes, she has camera in tote and is about to visit the graves of her parents who both died in a car accident. As she walks into the middle of an ongoing funeral, a contract killer (Laurence Fishburne as Sade) offs a priest and two other patrons who happen to be there. Bird sees Sade's face, snaps a photo of him, and flees to an old house owned by a fallen soldier named Carter (Thomas Jane). Sade ventures to said house and has to kill Bird because she is a witness. Carter keeping an eye on Sade with a shotgun, vows to protect Bird and won't let sicko Sade go upstairs to finish the job. (I mean gosh, this is a 9-11 year- old we're talking about). Therein lies the film's title. Add a couple of backstories about Carter losing his own kid and Sade having terminal prostate cancer and wallah, you have a nasty thriller oozing regret, despondency, and desperation.All in all, I think Standoff as an uber Western, is far from being lackluster. I mean it keeps you somewhat enthralled and on the edge of your seat. Added to that, the music by Austin Wintory includes a whiff of calculated menace to go along with Standoff's obsession with the color red (red is associated with danger so that makes sense). I just wish the film's screenplay didn't cause two veteran troupers to completely over reach. Sometimes less is more as opposed to more being more. Now if I had to give out an acting prize, I'd go with the obvious non-veteran in young Ella Ballentine. As Bird, she exudes a level of sensitivity and empathy. Her relationship with Jane's Carter and her ability to look calm and contingent in the face of death, is the heart of Standoff.Bottom line: This is a non-theatrical release with production values that are above the norm in the direct-to-video category. Standoff as fodder for walking off into the 2016 sunset, could easily pass for a Saturday night rental (don't forget the beer, antipasto salad, and the pizza). Rating: A strong 2 and a half stars.

As a fan of Thomas Jane and Lawrence Fishburne, I wanted to like this movie. However, what seemed to be pitched as a battle of wits turned into an hour and half screaming match between the two actors. The movie is basically Jane attempting to keep a little girl from being killed by Fishburne with his last shotgun shell. The two of them spend the whole movie yelling insults and cursing at each other, with very little happening in between. The script tries to add some story by telling giving Jane's character a tragic backstory, but it really doesn't do much to keep the plot moving. The best part of the movie is the little girl. Ella Ballentine has some definite talent, and finding out what happens to her is the only reason to finish watching the movie. This young actor adds a weariness and "old soul" quality to her character that makes her seem wiser beyond her years. While pitched as a battle of wits, this is more of a pissing contest between two stubborn men. If that's your thing, then go for it.