{"id":2564,"date":"2024-08-19T03:28:23","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T03:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2564"},"modified":"2024-10-14T11:20:46","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T15:20:46","slug":"stand-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/19\/stand-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Stand Alone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Stand Alone <\/strong>(1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Action-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence and language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Alan Beattie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Roy Carlson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Campbell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Tom Richmond and Tim Suhrstedt\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Charles Durning, Pam Grier, James Keach, Bert Remsen, Barbara Sammeth, Lu Leonard, Luis Contreras, Willard Pugh, Bob Tzudiker, Mary Ann Smith, Cory \u201cBumper\u201d Yothers, Holly Hardman, Duane Tucker.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0A 22nd<\/sup> century anthropologist looking back on 1985 as reflected in exploitation movies might deduce that it was common for old guys named Charles to go after criminals. If the sight of 63YO Charles Bronson mowing down a multi-ethnic New York street gang with a Browning M1919 in Death Wish 3 doesn\u2019t raise an eyebrow, the sight of fat 62YO Charles Durning taking on Mexican \u201ccocaine cowboys\u201d in Stand Alone<\/strong> will surely raise both.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Durning, then a recent Oscar nominee for his musical turn in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, plays Louis Thibadeau, a WWII vet lauded a war hero for taking out five Japanese soldiers with a bayonet. That was 40 years ago. Now he\u2019s retired and living the quiet life with his widowed daughter-in-law Meg (Sammeth, Foul Play) and grandson Gordie (Yothers, Dreamscape). One day, he witnesses a brutal murder in the local diner owned by his best friend, fellow vet Paddie (Remsen, Code of Silence). As the only eyewitness, investigating detective Isgrow (Keach, Moving Violations) needs Louis to make a positive ID of the killer. His family and friends, including public defender Cathy Bolan (Grier, Foxy Brown), fear for his safety if he comes forward. It\u2019s isn\u2019t just another gang-related killing, it\u2019s the work of ruthless cartel assassins who aren\u2019t in the habit of letting witnesses live. If he talks, he\u2019ll put himself and his family at great risk.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Because he\u2019s a patriotic American, one who was personally praised for his bravery by General MacArthur, he decides to do the right thing and ID the killer. Naturally, this incurs the wrath of the lead scumbag (Contreras, Extreme Prejudice) who comes after Louis and those he cares about. Eventually, he and his gang push the old man too far and he has no choice but to fight back.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Despite appearances to the contrary, Stand Alone<\/strong> is NOT a vigilante flick, at least not in the same sense of any of the Death Wish movies. Durning\u2019s character doesn\u2019t take to the streets and shoot gang members. He spends a fair amount of time deciding what to do. It\u2019s a choice between doing the right thing or doing right by his family. He hears it from both sides. Isgrow wants to put the bad guys away; Meg doesn\u2019t want Louis to get killed. At one point, he\u2019s spotted outside the gang\u2019s hangout and they chase him through the streets. Yes, Durning actually runs. I\u2019m surprised he didn\u2019t have a heart attack or something. The action doesn\u2019t really kick in until the finale when Louis defends his home from invading gang members. It\u2019s a pretty cool 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I realize that Stand Alone<\/strong> is fairly weak as an action movie; it definitely needs more. HOWEVER, I\u2019m not entirely sure that\u2019s what director Alan Beattie (Delusion) had in mind. I get the impression he wants it to be more of a drama in the vein of the 1978 TV movie Siege starring Martin Balsam as an old man who fights back against the gang terrorizing elderly people in his New York neighborhood. If that\u2019s the case, I completely understand why New World didn\u2019t give it a wide release. It never even opened in Philadelphia; I had to wait until it came out on video to see it. I have to admit I was put off by it NOT being a Death Wish clone but I didn\u2019t hate it either. Why? It bears the New World Pictures logo, that\u2019s why. Yes, it\u2019s another cheapie that uses a generic urban setting to stand in for a major city. It\u2019s set in L.A. but you wouldn\u2019t know it from the absence of major landmarks. New World has a habit of doing this as seen in The Annihilators, Certain Fury and C.H.U.D. It\u2019s part of their grungy charm although I\u2019d hardly call Stand Alone<\/strong> grungy or dirty.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Durning delivers a solid performance in Stand Alone<\/strong>. He was always a reliable actor, equally adept at action, comedy and drama. Okay, maybe he was miscast in Stick, but so what? He looked like he was enjoying himself. Here he brings a measure of gravitas to what could easily have been a one-dimensional creep killer avenging a family member or close friend. Louis takes up arms to protect his loved ones from creeps. It\u2019s a little different. Grier is good but I wish she\u2019d be given more to do. Keach is okay as the cop; he\u2019s not depicted as antagonistic which is a nice change. Lu Leonard, the dancing nurse from Breakin\u2019 2: Electric Boogaloo, has some nice scenes as a neighbor with a thing for Louis and maintaining a safe, quiet neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I guess you could call Stand Alone<\/strong> one of my guilty pleasures. When you really consider it, it\u2019s a fairly mediocre film. But if you take it as mere 80s exploitation entertainment, it\u2019s better than mediocre. Hey, at least the ending is cool. Who doesn\u2019t like watching old guys named Charles mete out justice to dirtbags?\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stand Alone (1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Action-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence and language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Alan Beattie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Roy Carlson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Campbell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Tom Richmond and Tim Suhrstedt\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Charles Durning, Pam Grier, James Keach, Bert Remsen, Barbara Sammeth, Lu Leonard, Luis Contreras, Willard Pugh, Bob Tzudiker, Mary Ann Smith, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Stand-Alone-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2564"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3357,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions\/3357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}