johnnyzheng212 Okay, there is a spoiler alert, but there is not much to spoil. It's just some guy trying to protect some little girl in an attic with a black guy downstairs. But that black guy is the Matrix guy so it's kind of cool. Not much to spoil, but it is about the suspense. You want to know what the guy is gonna do. He tries to be a good guy, but whether he makes it or not, I'll leave that to you to decide. This movie is aight. Not great. But hey, it's Netflix so what do you expect?They must have spent like 5 dollars making this film, because this whole movie takes place in some dude's house. It's not bad. I think it's an okay movie. But it's not great.

wire_paladin69 Good performances, but overall thoroughly unbelievable plot. Sade (Fishburne), a contract killer, murders several people at a funeral then is forced to chase down a witness, Bird( Ballentine), a small girl who stumbles onto the scene. She runs to the nearest house, owned by Carter (Jane), a grieving vet contemplating suicide who responds to Sade's attempt to kill him by retreating into the house after a brief gun fight in which both killer and defender are wounded. The plot is set and the holes start to add up from here.Sade, the master criminal, needlessly exposes himself at the initial site, even though he uses a rifle for the first two murders (a priest and a bodyguard) he decides to perform the final hit at close range with a pistol. His reasoning for this is never explained. Neither is his reasoning for hanging around the crime scene to fill in the grave to begin with, then throwing in the rifle, but retaining the pistol (which would be far more likely than the rifle to link him to the crime).In his haste to dispatch the last witness, he is wounded by the owner of the house. The writer overlooks the fact that this would be the time to retreat, as he would have no way of knowing how many or how well armed the defenders might be. Sade then returns to his, "I got all the time in the world" mode as the standoff develops with him on the ground floor and Bird and Carter on the second. More holes develop as a cop spots the automobiles left by the witnesses uncle (who is also murdered as he looks for Bird) and the original intended victim. He has a "gut feeling" there is a problem, but never bothers to call in the tag numbers to the vehicles despite this being SOP with every PD in the country. He doesn't bother to call in his exit from the vehicle, something that is also SOP, either. It's all down hill from here as Sade shoots him through the door (knowing he's a cop yet forgetting the cops theses days wear vests for just such an event). Luckily for him this cop has also forgotten SOP on vests and isn't wearing one. Good performances by Fishburne, Jane and Ballentine,along with an atmospheric set, wasted on a poor script written by someone who apparently doesn't know the difference between a .45 and a 9mm or that burning farmhouses give off clouds of smoke, something sure to attract attention in such a rural setting.In summation, Standoff falls down before it begins. Too bad.

viewsonfilm.com 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.

Dan Ashley (DanLives1980) Just beyond the opening scenes, Standoff quickly rises above its cheapness as an enjoyable and gripping suspense thriller. Then we're treated to an old breed of filmmaking that hasn't been this well-done since the likes of Misery! I love both headlining actors dearly but they've unfairly fallen off the radar in recent years. I still buy into their efforts on occasion despite bitter reviews, though, because budget does not always make for a great movie. In this case, it hits the spot.So an ex-military man turned mafia hit-man hunts the sole witness of a multiple murder - a young girl with a camera - to a lonely farmhouse inhabited by a grieving alcoholic. Literally this is the premise and the scene is set for a siege and an edgy war of wits as one tries to convince the other to let him have the girl and walk away.Sometimes that's all you need; no winding plot twists to keep people guessing. Sometimes it's just about the suspense and the viscera, but Standoff benefits from a great script and the skills of the director who also wrote it.It has an old-school feel to it, and when we get down to it, even the look of the film harks back to a day of shamelessly simple effectiveness.Fishburne is on top form as the villain, bringing the ghetto mentality of former villainous roles from the likes of King of New York and Assault on Precinct 13. He's sharper than ever, bursting with character and both smouldering and cold-blooded.Thomas Jane also throws in his strongest performance in a long time and his man on the edge versus the man on a deadline is both genius acting and writing at once. They don't make characters like this anymore. Back in the '70s or '80s the role could have belonged to Lee Marvin, James Coburn or Roy Scheider.I'm surprised and saddened that Standoff isn't getting recognition. It deserves a round of applause!