Just watched this on the Sony Movie Channel and to be fair they do pump out some good films almost as well as Film4 and this is no exception.

I have always liked Thomas Jane since I saw him in The Mist and many other films as he straddles the ability to fit in as an Action movie star but with the ability to handle the drama and romance softer side of acting which is no mean feat these days.

This movie is action packed full of gruesome violence but yet has a solid story and good characterization and is one of those movies set in a static confined location which is not an easy thing to accomplish by any director but Adam Alleca pulls it off with aplomb and deserves full credit for taking a basic story and making it into a riveting and engaging action/thriller.

I loved the surprise ending; it almost gets an extra star just for that but it deserves a very solid 7/10 stars from me as it was a most unexpected and enjoyable evenings movie viewing.

A Little, Low-Budget, and Suspenseful Scenario that is a lot Better than You would expect. It has Style and is Scripted for a Battle of Wits between Laurence Fishburne and Thomas Jane.

Fishburne is a Nasty Piece of Work and is appropriately Chilling as a Hit-Man that is Despicable, Cold, and Calculating. Jane Surprises with His Best Acting after a string of Awful Movies and for once He made a Career Decision that is Not Embarrassing.

Ella Ballentine is just Superb showing a Depth of Character Beyond Her Years and the Camera Loves Her. So will You as this Nail-Biter unfolds. The Writer-Director shows some Movie Making Chops and makes this Confined Setting Interesting.

A Movie that Delivers the most of what it has to offer. Brought Home by the Captivating Performances of the Three Leads with a Villain Worth Hating. It's Touching in Spots and Brutally Engaging in others.

Overall, Underrated and the Film goes Beyond its Constraints and Everyone involved can be Proud of the Results. Not a Shoot-em-Up by any stretch. It relies on Character and Dialog most of time, but is not without some of the Visceral needed to make this work, and it Works Just Fine.

STANDOFF is an astonishingly bad Canadian B-movie thriller which only seems to have gathered positive reviews on this site, which is a surprise; it's one of the most turgid I've seen in a while. The problems are entirely down to the writing, which is far below standard and quite laughable. The singularly non-menacing Laurence Fishburne plays a random assassin who kills a bunch of people at a funeral in the laughable opening sequence. An annoying girl witnesses his crimes and flees to a local farmhouse, where a slumming-it Thomas Jane protects her. The rest of the film consists of Jane sitting on his landing conversing with Fishburne who is at the foot of the stairs. The dialogue takes a philosophical bent but there's no suspense here, no tension, just a slow pace and nothing happening for ten, twenty, then thirty and forty minutes, aside from an extra getting tortured. It's mind-crushingly boring.