Nowhere to Run (1993)

Escaped convict Sam Gillen single handedly takes on ruthless developers determined to evict Clydie - a widow with two young children. Nobody knows who Sam is. Nowhere to Run is far from being one of Van Damme's best for sure but it's far from his worst either, i think the biggest problem was definitely the cheesy villains but also how the movie dragged in few parts but Jean Claude tries his best as he was used to back in the early and late 90's and the end result is a watchable although pretty forgettable drama, action, romance flick. (6.5/10)

Sam Gillen (Jean-Claude Van Damme) escapes from a prison bus with the help of his crime partner Billy. Billy is killed as they drive away. He comes to the aid of widower Clydie Anderson (Rosanna Arquette) and her two kids. She is under pressure from property developer Franklin Hale (Joss Ackland) and his henchmen led by Mr. Dunston (Ted Levine) to sell her land. Sheriff Poole is tasked with getting Clydie to sell despite being sweet on her. He's also jealous of Sam.The highlight of this movie is the little girl saying that Van Damme has a big penis. Van Damme does not do his usual kicks. He is trying to be a more run-of-the-mill action leading man. Acting is still not his strong suit. They cover his accent problem by making his character Quebecois. Dunston even makes fun of his accent. Rosanna Arquette tries to inject some heat but the chemistry is not there. She's literally naked and he can't do much with it. His first move is to be a peeping Tom. Again his acting is limited. While I commend Van Damme for trying to stretch, most people just want him to kick up a storm and do the splits. His stiff acting leaves the movie with too many slow spots.

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.

The ridiculously low rating on IMDb at the time of this posting (5.0) aside, this has long been in my opinion the highest quality of all of Van Damme's flicks. By highest quality I don't mean best fight scene, most over the top cheesy premise, best gore, or anything else. I mean best quality as in an actual quality movie that just happened to star Jean Claude Van Damme.The cinematography in the movie is excellent, so is the score, and in a real rarity in a Van Damme movie, so for the most part is the acting. Rosanna Arquette plays damsel in distress without ever being weak or pathetic and injects a nice touch of forlorn longing into it, the younger Culkin turns in one of the better child performances you are likely to see from an 8-9 year old, and they get two nice performances from the main baddies, who play evil as steely eyed rather than screaming slobbering over the top. And of course the biggest surprise is Van Damme himself, who probably gave the best performance of his career, although that is both faint praise and I think at least in part because he found a role where his character not emoting fit perfectly.This is not a 10, although I must admit to being tempted to give it one as part of the stupid IMDb pump the ratings of a film you liked game. The plot is largely derivative of a number of old westerns (Shane comes to mind), the action sequences are fine but not thrilling (I think a large part of the low rating comes from disappointed action junkies), and in general this is a movie aiming lower than a 10 as I would define it. Its trying to be good, not great, but don't let the naysayers confuse you -- it largely succeeds, and is perhaps the only Van Damme movie you can watch (even the entertaining ones) that does not leave cheese dripping down the screen. Solid entertainment.