Genres

Visitors Review

2012-05-18 13:14:53

Well Done Hero Role!

This was a perfect vehicle for Van Damme. A poor woman is being threatened by a wealthy businessman from the local town It becomes Van Damme's duty to protect the poor lady and her kids. Van Damme has his share of problems out of the bad guys also.As usual he is able to overcome all of the forces of evil. As is the case with any Van Damme film there is nonstop action. Van Damme puts on a good demonstration of his karate skills. Van Damme has to overcome overwhelming odds. The forces of evil are many. The movie has a pretty decent plot. The acting in this movie is not that bad either. Watch this movie if you like action. It is your type of film.

2012-05-18 03:33:34

Loved This Movie

I'm a huge fan of JCVD. This is one of the many movie that i like with him in it. I don't care what people say about him, i still like him. He's a better actor than Seagal & Chuck Norris. Maybe he's not as good at fighting as them in real life but who cares that's why they are called movies. Norris can't act worth ****. I like Seagal so i will lay off his early films but lately he sucks! Oh yeah Nowhere To Run is a great movie. 9/10

rmadesp 2012-05-17 08:17:44

Average, moderate film on both levels.............

I've been a loyal Jean Claude Van Damme fan ever since I was a little boywhen BloodSport had its cinematic release. I've seen every film of hissince then, and back in 1993 when I viewed Nowhere to Run, I rememberseeingthe poster ad for it saying "Van Damme like you've never seen himbefore..."Its quite true, Van Damme parks aside his actioner title as the "Musclesfrom Brussels" to deliver a much softer, gentler role as Sam in this"plain"yet somewhat entertaining drama. Without going into any further details &to sum it up, if you are a JCVD fan, then you are likely to bedisappointedwith the lack of action (particulary no famous kicking!) yet shouldappreciate JCVD's convincing performance in something a bit different. Ifyou are not a JCVD fan and are looking for something else, then you'relikely to dislike this drab little tale..........in that case, shouldnt beon top of your list but not necessarily one to skip.Favorite Line: "I'm the parking lot attendant, and you're bothering mycustomers."

2012-05-16 17:52:24

a two-time movie

waht i mean by this is that when u watch this movie for the first time ur gonna think "Wow,what a great movie"and thats true. i liked it a lot.but ur gonna watch it a second time and its not gonna be as fun,see?its a great movie,but not a whole lot of martial arts action in it at all.well anyway if ur a Van Damme fan,get it,but if not,skip it.(I like Van Damme movies but i got this one for free from a friend and im sorta glad i didn't spend 10 bucks on it)

mutty_mcflea 2012-05-16 10:54:15

Old hat

Essentially an episode of 'The Fugitive' with cobwebs on, 'Nowhere toRun' sees escaped con Jean-Claude Van Damme getting comfy with widowedRosanna Arquette's family and defending them from ruthless propertydeveloper Joss Ackland, who wants to tear down their farm and put up ahuge development. While it's a competent movie, and doesn't suffer asmuch as you might think from Van Damme's complete lack of actingability, it's weighed down by its hopelessly threadbare plot and asplit personality screenplay that can't decide if it's a drama or abeat-em-up. The longer it goes on, the worse it gets, and Arquette'srole is amazingly thankless.

malkane316 2012-05-16 01:47:45

Quick Reviews!!

Van Damme was on a role in the late eighties, early nineties, makingsome of the most fun, simple action movies of the era. His ability toalways get a laugh, and being renowned for his nice-guy qualities haveensured his continued success, even if most of his movies now arestraight-to-DVD capers.In Nowhere to Run he stars with an established cast as anothermisunderstood nice guy, an escaped convict who decides to help a youngwidow and her family who are struggling against a local developer whois forcing them out of their home. There is a good amount of action,some strong performances, and some very funny moments. Van Damme playsSam, a mysterious convict who has escaped from prison. He sleeps in atent outside a small town where two local young kids find and befriendhim. Eventually their mother Clydie, played by Rosanna Arquette findsout and invites him into their home cautiously. Of course they fall foreach other, much to the distaste of local Sheriff and love interestLonnie, who decides to look into Sam's background. Franklin Hale,played with typical evil by Ackland is the main bad guy, but hisside-arm Levine is the main threat. Sam helps the family, foiling Haleat every turn, but the past is catching up with Sam...Arquette, Culkin, Levine, and Taubman as the daughter are particularlygood, and the story tries to be light-hearted and moral. It may beanother attempt to achieve a wider audience for Van Damme, and it isdefinitely one of his most accessible, thanks to the good cast andhumour. The various discussions on Van Damme's naked body are alwayshumorous. Overall another good Van Damme film which will please fans,and may interest a few others.7.5 out of 10

Ryan Jones 2012-05-07 04:05:25

Van Damme Is The Man

This movie is great even though it's not one of his top movies its still awesome. Van Damme is a great actor who doesn't get the respect he deserves in Hollywood

Comeuppance Reviews 2012-05-06 20:50:08

Nowhere To Run is standard (actually, probably below-standard) Van Damme fare.

Clydie (Arquette) is an attractive widow trying to raise her two kids,Mookie (Culkin) and Bree (Tiffany Taubman) on their family farm. Sam(Van Damme) is a mysterious prison escapee living on their land in atent. Over time, Sam endears himself to the family, especially becausethe young Mookie is desperately searching for a father figure after thedeath of his own dad. Sam couldn't have come along at a better time,because classic evil land baron Franklin Hale (Ackland) wants to takeClydie's land and build a multi-million dollar development. Sonaturally he sends out his goons of various stripes to muscle the farmaway. But not on Sam's watch. Will Sam join Clydie's fam? Or will yetanother megalomaniacal land developer develop a way to keep them apart?Ah yes, let's take a trip down memory lane...it wasn't so long ago thatevery Van Damme (and even Seagal movie, as hard as that is to believenow) went to the movie theater. JCVD had yet to become synonymous withDTV, and this film is quite mainstream. It has a highly polished,theater-ready look and feel. But because, after all, it's still a VanDamme action movie, it's still dumb and Van Damme has a ton of sillyone liners that really don't even make any sense. Really, he just seemsconfused. In just about every scene, whether he be peeping into RosannaArquette's window as she takes a bath, cooks a steak in the ruralwilderness while wearing a suit, or just chillin' in his pup tent withthe latest issue of Top Heavy magazine, Van Damme seems oddlyoff-kilter in his performance. But that doesn't stop him from showinghis (presumably male) audience his time-honored unnecessary andun-asked for nudity. Rather than yet another eyeball-rolling shot ofhis naked butt, what this movie really needed was more goons for him tofight, more action scenes, and just more fight scenes in general. Thisis Van Damme here, after all.Nowhere To Run also needed more verve and a streamlined plot. And whatgoons there are happen to be not evil enough. They should have donesomething REALLY evil and then Sam could go after them on ano-holds-barred revenge mission. That would have been awesome.Unfortunately however, this is run-of-the-mill Van Damme with fewsurprises. (Although what surprises remain are pretty good). The plotof the mysterious stranger that comes to a ranch to protect a familyfrom the no-good-niks in town is ground well-covered since the days ofthe earliest Westerns, and Van Damme playing Monopoly with 2 kids and asong by Damn Yankees tacked on the soundtrack doesn't really add muchnew to the old formula. One more thing: Without any spoiler, let usjust say this: the ending is UNBELIEVABLY lame. It's one of the lamest- if not THE lamest ending to an action movie we've ever seen. Themovie itself isn't nearly good enough to justify or counterbalance sucha disappointing ending. It's not like "whoa, that movie was awesome,so, okay, we forgive how much the ending sucks." No. The ending justsucks, period. It drags the whole movie - everything we've just seenand invested in - down.Nowhere To Run is standard (actually, probably below-standard) VanDamme fare and despite a few bright spots, it's really nothing to gettoo excited about.

DunnDeeDaGreat 2012-05-05 13:41:53

Nice try but no cigar Van Damme

Nowhere to Run is a film that waste Van Damme's talent. He is supposed tocome off a caring ex con but once again he gives a paper thin performance.Roseanna Arqutete is wasted but Kirean Culkin( who is steadily making anamefor himself ) shows early acting talent. Too much story not enoughaction.

jonathanruano 2012-05-05 05:16:16

You want to run away from this film

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

moonspinner55 2012-05-03 10:48:00

Falls flat after exciting opening...

Joe Eszterhas co-authored this screenplay (from an original treatmentby he and Richard Marquand) about a convict (the able-bodied butcolorless Jean-Claude Van Damme) who is on the run from the law after aprison-bus breakout. He takes up with a small town single mom (RosannaArquette) who seems ready to love him no matter what his crimes!Vehicle for action-star Van Damme begins quite well but quicklydegenerates into sap and silliness. Eszterhas' plot is thin andderivative, not to mention ridiculous, and Arquette is pretty muchwasted. There's a surprisingly minimal amount of visual excitementafter the opening bust-out; that's all well and good, except thatnothing of interest takes its place. *1/2 from ****

Andy 2012-05-02 21:55:23

Excellent Van Damme Movie!!!

I was very hesitant when this movie first came out. They made it out to be a Van Damme love story but I went opening night back in 1993. I thought the story line worked for this movie and just the right amount of drama and action. This may not be the kind of movie you would expect from Van Damme but give it a try. I especially liked the bond between Sam (Van Damme) and Mookie (Kieran Culkin) and the touching scene between them at the end. Keep an eye out for the Triumph that Sam repairs in the movie....what a bike. There are a couple of scenes with Clydie (Rosanna Arquette WOW!!!) bearing all so you may not want the kids watching this one. I have ranked this movie #422 out of the top 500 movies of all time.

Knux 2012-05-02 09:45:23

Rosana Arquette

Rosana Arquette showed why she did this movie: to do love scenes with Van Damme. Her acting was ok too, but not her on-screen lover's. Van Damme is a sub-par actor on his best day. His low voice reminds me of Seagal, except you can hear Damme's voice a little bit more.The story was ok and was a disaster like Sudden Death. It never was fully explained why he was in jail, but I guess it wasn't something the directer really wanted to cover. Overall, its ok, but nothing special.

senrav2 2012-05-02 01:39:36

Surprisingly good

I had heard that this movie wasn't typical Van Damme, but I still expectedit to be mindless action on the whole. I was shocked when it turned out tobe truly well done, and not just for a Van Damme movie. The acting isgreat,especially Rosanna Arquette's performance, and the story is not cheesy atall--it's actually compelling. The (sparse) fight sequences don't involveany weird Van Damme midair split-kicks to the head; they're straight-aheadbrawls. This is definitely Van Damme's best, focusing on story and notaction, but I guess his presence makes a lot of people overlook it. Myrating: 8/10.

Norbert Köbli 2012-04-29 04:54:24

Van Damme makes audience wanna shout!

So here's this guy, some Belgian import who regards himself as a starcontinually. However he's sinking with movies like 'The Quest', 'MaxumumRisk' and 'Knock off'. 'Nowhere to run' was a tomb too. From Joe Eszterhaz' story Leslie Bohem ('Daylight') and Randy Feldman('Tango and Cash') wrote an uneventful script about a prisoner who protectsan innocent family from bad guys. Beginner Robert Harmon directed ahalf-action, half-romance movie that won't please anybody. 5 of the 10.

Michael Ma 2012-04-28 19:49:27

Where the hell are his helicopter kicks?

This movie must have been made off a bet that Van Damme couldn't have asuccessful movie without having helicopter kicks in it. And what does hedo? He does no kicking at all!!! All he uses his legs for is kneeing someheads. This movie might have a story, but if I wanted that I wouldn't bewatching a Van Damme movie. I love his movies and kicks. That's why I don'tlike this one. 1 out of 10.

2012-04-28 13:02:26

Great movie!

This review is from: Nowhere to Run (DVD) This is a typical Jean Claude van Damme movie but it is really good. There is a plot, action, comedy and drama which actually blend together quite nicely. It's a good no-brainer, almost feel good at the end kind of movie. I don't particularly care for Rosanna Arquette but she did ok. Ted Levine (the Capt. from the USA show Monk) is really great as a bad guy. He doesn't have his mustache in this movie but his voice is very distint. Anyway, if you like Jean Claude, I think that you will like this movie. It is one of his better movies during the peak of his popularity.

2012-04-27 22:38:15

Jean Claude van Damme is a 5!

Jean Claude van Damme still had his rugged good looks and athletic prowess in this movie.The script is silly and contrived, but hey, it's Jean Claude van Damme, not Willie Shakespeare. If you want script and plot, watch PBS. If you want action and good looks, then come to JCvD.The memorable scenes are the dinner table discussion of Mr. van Damme's "John Thomas"; the bad guy mocking his accent, and Mr. van Damme in the shower. The flight of the fired bullet was a great effect.

theskylabadventure 2012-04-23 00:59:14

A huge surprise

Having recently revisited my old Van Damme collection (my wife hasdeveloped a bit of a crush on JC), I have made my way through all theclassics (Bloodsport, AWOL, Kickboxer, Death Warrant, Universal Soldieretc) and hugely enjoyed revelling in the guilty pleasure of watching ashort, white Belgian dude kick the living snot out of everyone else onthe screen. Why else would anyone go to see a Van Damme picture?The last film I came to was Nowhere to Run. Having not seen it in agood ten years, and remembering it as slow-paced, indulgent andseverely lacking in arse-kicking, I was not really expecting to be atall impressed. It's funny, looking through most of the reviews here,that two groups of people have clearly emerged. The first group, theVan Damme fans, are all complaining that this is not your average VDfilm and bitching about how they were cheated into watching a seriousdrama.The other group are all up in arms at the fact that anyone would make aserious drama and cast Van Damme in it. I have a name for this group,but I doubt IMDb would publish it. Let's just call them w*nkers. Whythe w*nkers, who clearly have an abundant dislike for the Muscles fromBrussells, would go to see a film with his name above the title isbeyond me. Cinesnobs have no place at a Van Damme show. I'll leave itat that.The reason I felt compelled to write this review is that I am,admittedly, a bit of a Cinesnob, but I'm also happy to take a film forwhat it is. I like James Bond, I like Sonny Chiba, I likeblaxploitation and I also fricking like Van Damme movies! What I didnot expect, was for "a serious drama starring Van Damme" (trying sayingthat out loud without snickering) to be so Damme good! (Get it?)The story is pretty simple, JC is an escaped con who happens upon asleepy little town which is about to be pulverised by a nihilistic landdeveloper (not surprisingly, a British one, played with appropriatemenace by Joss Ackland). He befriends a little boy (not in the MichaelJackson way, though the boy in question is, ironically, MacaulayCulkin's younger brother, Kieran) and consequently gets rather chummywith the boy's mother. Happily, she is both widowed and incredibly hot.As if her being a still distraught widow weren't enough, she is alsobeing harassed to a rather unreasonable degree by Ted Levine, who ishilarious and brilliant and the land developer's chief henchman. CueVan Damme.Sounds like the ideal recipe for another typical action flick, so I amwilling to forgive those VD fans who felt cheated. What we actually endup with is a genuinely moving, well paced and hugely enjoyable actiondrama. It may sound unthinkable, but JC actually pulls his characteroff perfectly. Sam is mistrusting, awkward but ultimately striving tobe a decent person. Director Mark Harmon made a very savvy decision inkeeping JC's dialogue to a minimum, leaving him the task of creating abelievable character with his face and body language alone. Don'tbelieve the naysayers, JC delivers a truly surprising performance.Rosanna Arquette also handles her role well, even if the character isflying dangerously close to stereotype. Her performance grounds thewhole story, and we both care for her plight and admire herdetermination (the men in the audience will also admire her perfectlyformed semi-naked body). The two kids were bound to be annoying, butthey're certainly nowhere close to being as bad as they could havebeen.The real star of this film is the consistently beautiful cinematographyby the relatively unknown David Gribble. With scenery like this, you'dbe hard pressed to go wrong with the external stuff, but the interiorsare equally well shot.The big let down, both in terms of cinematography and the film as awhole, is the truly lame action. There are only a handful of actionsequences in the whole show, but they're easily the dullest moments inthe film. When you have a good story, solid characters and a reallywell-cast group of fine actors, do you really need to throw in a bunchof crappy fights? Sadly, if you're selling this as a Van Damme picture,the answer is yes. So they had the courage to put JC in a serious roleand give him the chance to prove that he can actually act, but theydidn't have the balls to actually sell the film on this basis. Thetrailer says "Van Damme, as you've never seen him before" and then justgives us a bunch of poor action clips. Is it any wonder that nobody whoactually bothered to see this film liked it?If it weren't bad enough that the action scenes are badly shot andclumsily edited, they're also punctuated by really poor one-liners fromJC ("Strike 3, you're out!" and "Au revoir, f**ker" are among theworst). One gets the feeling that there were differences in theopinions of the director and the star and the opinions of the producersand studio folk. Presumably, someone thought they had found a happybalance. Someone was wrong, and the film really suffers as aconsequence.If you can overlook this, and you're not watching the film either tocomplain that it's not a solid action flick or to complain that VanDamme is in a drama, you'll probably find yourself surprisinglyimpressed with the film.

2012-04-22 07:05:01

4 stars for a van Damme movie anyhow!

This is a must for any van Damme fan. Tony Keogh obviously doesn't understand the nature of a van Damme movie if he thinks the direction of the plot makes it a good JCvD movie or not. Okay so the plot sits still after he arrives at the farm and understands that Arquette is trying to be evicted from her property by the big bad company, but so what? Van Damme is at his best when the plot is kept simple! Believe me a true JCvD fan will not be disappointed with 'Nowhere To Run'. 4 JCvD stars.