Nowhere to Run (1993)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

I got this on DVD at Walmart. It came with "The Order", which is a strange but fun change of pace for Van Damme and "The Shepherd" which is not too bad for what it was. This triple feature came at me for 5 bucks, so naturally I had to get it. My main reason for getting it was Nowhere to Run. I hadn't seen this movie since the 90's and after that it fell into obscurity, considering JCVD released better quality in films. The movie takes place in a shanty town that apparently wanted to try too hard to look rural. It's not a bad setting but it made the movie somehow look dull. (That plus the lack of a good score, which was basically absent through most of the film's better scenes) After movies like "Lionheart" and "Bloodsport" where Van Damme looked incredible as the good hearted hero, in this one, he tries to be and look rugged for his convict persona. Included the stubble he rarely grew in movies back then and the laid back but heavy foreign accent. It definitely seemed like he was into his part but he drops subtle signs of weakness in his acting, like for example, when he intentionally mispronounces the word 'Motorcycle' and his delivery of obligatory 90s action movie one liners. Only good thing about his performance, is he didn't pull any fancy moves. He kept it brawling and I liked that. I'm a JCVD fan for life, but this movie is one of the reasons why I get when some people dislike him. Moving on to the supporting cast, Rosanna Arquette and Kieran Culkin did great as mother and son who take kind to a random drifter. The chemistry between the 2 of them wasn't any better at mom and son than it was for JCVD and Rosanna (whom according to interviews, disliked working with Van Damme) Ted Levine is always fun to watch and actually menacing in his role. In fact, I can't really remember a role where Ted Levine was rubbish, because even in "Flubber' he delivered some great scenes that combined his tough guy act and his comedic timing. The movie is simple enough, with some good decent fight sequences thrown in between. The story could've used some more development, like for example: some retrospective scenes where it showed Van Damme's failed bank robbery or his aforementioned marriage, so it would have made Van Damme's character a bit more sympathetic because you just end up feeling sorry for the poor family caught in between his story and the film's plot. Im pretty sure, this was a movie that was still polishing his acting skills and expanding his resumé as a leading action star but there were definitely better ones. Not bad at all. Fun little movie to watch when you want to snack on something at 2am and be amused while you're at it. But if you really wanna get into his movies, I wouldn't suggest this as your first one.

This is what I consider a good Van Damme flick. The story has been told many times. It is similar in many respects to Romeo Must Die - evil developer wants to put up a kitzy development and needs to run off small landowners. Clydie (Rosanna Arquette) resists and her deputy dawg boyfriend (Edward Blatchford) is playing both sides. In comes the hard-ass to get things finished (a very young Ted Levine) and, at the same time our hero breaks out of prison and camps on her doorstep. It seems Van Damme is always either breaking out of prison or going AWOL. Relationships with her two cute kids begin and then things really heat up with mom. Boyfriend is jealous and it all comes to a head, as expected, between Van EDamme and Levine. Smaltzy ending, but great chases. fights, and lots of passion.

In real life, Jean Claude Van Damme is not only a great martial arts sensation, but on the talk show circuit he is remarkably witty, charismatic and entertaining. Yet astonishingly a movie like "Nowhere to Run" does not exploit any of Jean Claude Van Damme's strengths in either area. To be sure, the plot for "Nowhere to Run" is little more than the familiar story of the stranger Sam Gillen (Jean Claude Van Damme) visiting small town America to save the home of Clydie (the sexy Rosanna Arquette) and her two children from developers, who are obviously evil because they are led by Franklin Hale (Joss Ackland) who has a strong British accent -- and one of the unwritten rules in Hollywood is that all British people in the movies are evil. Yet even if one excuses the predictable plot, surely director Robert Harmon and writers Joe Eszterhas, Robert Marquand, Leslie Bohem, and Randy Feldman could have done something to make the movie more interesting. "Nowhere to Run" has lots of action scenes, but why not have Jean Claude Van Damme perform his beautifully choreographed karate in any of them? Van Damme is also a remarkably charismatic and witty individual, but why not show that side of him by giving him more things to say and allowing him just to be himself. I was astonished to see that most of Van Damme's dialogue included one, two or three words strewn together. Could Joe Eszterhas, who is paid millions for his scripts, come up with anything better than that? Could any of the screen writers (four in all!) work together to come up with anything better? "Nowhere to Run" apparently cost $15 million to make, but its performances are on par with a low-budget Canadian film with B- or C-grade actors. And it is a great shame because Jean-Claude is probably one of the most interesting personalities to emerge in the 1980s and 1990s. He has the confidence, charisma and dynamism of a shooting star, but instead of allowing him to be himself, the producers, the writers and director hamstrung this movie sensation with terrible scripts that give him nothing to say and replace his awesome karate with brain numbing punching scenes and shoot em up scenes.There are only few saving graces in this mess. Clydie (Rosanna Arquette) has a certain sex appeal. Van Damme's line that he is the parking intendant looking out for his customers was cute. The kids were also entertaining. But for the most part, "Nowhere to Run" is a big disappointment that gratuitously wastes the acting talent.

On the surface, it looks like Van Damme is starring as another one of his formula based action hero. But his Sam Gillen character is an escaped convict. He hides out and eventually helps a widow named Clydie (Rosanna Arquette) ward of land grabbers during his "free" time. He bonds with Clydie and her two kids Bree and Mike (Culkin).It's a groundbreaking role for Jean Claude. Especially for this part hero, and pseudo bad guy role. How many people remembers, knows or cares that he was a villain named Andrei in the less notable "Black Eagle"? Credit is deserved for not making this completely run-of-the-mill with a predictable character and outcome.The film perfectly pulls of the task of putting viewers in a somewhat psychological dilemma. Sam's crime(s) are never revealed, leaving an incomplete picture. Although Gillen is likable throughout, he has baggage. Not all good inside, the character is a complex one, which, for me, adds to the film. Sam could have saved the world, yet he's still guilty.