Director: Alain Desrochers
Writers: Tony Mosher, John Sullivan (screenplay)
Stars: Antonio Banderas, Ben Kingsley, Liam McIntyre
Plot: A security guard protects an eleven year-old girl who is being targeted by a gang for participating as a trial witness.
Running Time: 88 Minutes
IMDB Score: 5.7
Why I Watched it: The trailer looked pretty good and it had a good cast for a directed to VOD action movie.
Thoughts: Now they try to make this look like a Die Hard rip-off but it’s more of a siege movie actually it’s kind of close to the Thomas Jane movie Standoff. Both about a man trying to protect a young girl from a hitman. Security has a hit team and more people trying to protect the girl, let’s just say it had a bigger budget so it could afford more actors.
What I liked: This is a fun little action movie and really this could be the review, no wheels got reinvented here but it’s an action movie that works. I had a lot of fun with it. Two things the film did that I liked is it hit the tone well, it’s a film that wants stakes but it doesn’t want to be too dark and the film does that. It’s a pretty well directed little film, it moves well and it takes advantage of it’s Mall setting. It also does a very nice job of setting up our main character quickly but gives him enough that he’s not just a walking cliche. Came back from being in the military and he’s not doing great kudos for not giving him a drinking problem. I also liked the fact that it’s not just one guy is a small job of security guards against this hit team.
The acting is pretty good I liked Antonio Banderas he’s understated not one of his over the top performances, he pulls of the action well and he does add some depth to the whole shooting match. I was surprised at the Liam McIntyre character his addition changed up the formula a bit he’s not a dick and he’s not a coward and he doesn’t turn on Banderas, he’s almost the second lead here.
The pacing is good here not a lot of wasted time we get into the set up and they do a couple of clever kind of twists and the film once it gets started keeps the pace up till the end.
What I Didn’t Like: Ben Kingsley is a good actor but he’s done a lot of pay check movies and to be honest he hurts this film as he’s not only sleepwalking he’s played this guy too many times and it shows, if they went with a different actor it might have seemed a little more fresh, he’s not bad in it but his persona is playing this part. To that point Cung Le is kind of wasted, I wish they gave him something more to do.
The only other thing that was lacking is some depth to the supporting characters, the other three security guards get one dimensional characters and we know what they’re there for.
Final Thoughts: A fun little B-Movie, I enjoyed it it was short and fun and shot well.
Rating: 7/10
Movie Burner Entertainment 