Hiding (2012)

...but having received such short shrift here on the IMDb, it deserves at least one more comment/review. With "made for TV" stamped all over it, it's little surprise that "Hiding" went straight to video; it contains absolutely nothing that demands a big-screen presentation. "Hiding" is make-work all the way, presumably to showcase newcomer Ana "Los Americans" Villafañe (although how she's merits an "introducing" is beyond me, given her resume) and give a lot of 2d-tier people something to do. I'll give props to DP Danny "Blood Ties" Nowak for decent camera-wrangling and lighting, and to rising star Jeremy "Peter Pan" Sumpter for putting the integrity of his resume at risk.The primary failure of "Hiding," of course, is the utterly unsurprising by-the-numbers script that offers up some occasionally witty teen banter and little else. The characters, though not as stereotypical as one might fear, are mostly shallow and under- developed, and the plot is banal and full of holes. Does the witness protection program really leave its charges utterly marooned and isolated and sticking out like a sore thumb with blatantly faked records that even high-schoolers can ferret out? Does a subject like Jo actually take a Spanish class when she's already fluent and been instructed not to reveal it? And do trusted authority figures really reveal key private information to smarmy strangers?No matter. If one of the principals in the cast flips your switches, I suppose you could do much worse than this inadequate teen thriller, but you'd likely have to be fairly easy to please. Anyone looking for quality film entertainment should give this one a pass; they won't miss a thing.

One of my favorite actors, Jeremy Sumpter, leads a mostly unknown cast in the new direct-to-video drama, Hiding. I liked the concept behind this movie, but I don't like the part of the story they chose to focus on. The writers spent too much time on the present, without telling us enough about the past. While we have an idea of what happened, watching the beginning of this film is like arriving at the theater fifteen minutes late and having to play catch up the whole time. Joe (Ana Villafane) witnessed a murder in her home town of New York City. Being that she is the key witness against a major crime family, she is put into the witness protection program, given a cover story, and put into a new life in the middle of nowhere. The film begins with Joe being dropped at her new home, with a very vague description of what happened, what's expected of her, and how long she'll be there. From there the film kind of turns into a CW teen drama, which wasn't very appealing, however the filmmakers used flashbacks and side angles, to stop it from turning into Dawson's Creek. Sumpter plays one of two guys interested in Joe, as always he was dynamic, but here he was also funny and charming, a clear opposite of the other love interest, who just seemed to drone on and on. As for the lead, in her debut role, Ana Villafane was nothing short of terrific. This is not the kind of movie I go for and the focus was not on the part of the script that interests me, but the combination of Villafane and Sumpter, along with flashbacks and side stories did keep the film going. My description probably sounds quite dull, but Hiding keeps on moving and keeps your attention by using some pretty unconventional methods. It's not the best movie I've ever seen, but it was most definitely entertaining.

Hiding – TRASH IT (F) Hiding is as bad as I had expected it to be. The only reason I watched it because sometimes indie movies surprisingly come out very good or at least good time pass. But sadly none can be sad about the movie. The lead actress is as bad as she looks in the movie. Nobody likes an obnoxious ugly girl, I don't know how these girls get roles oh I know actually. Jeremy Sumpter was the only good thing in the movie, his scenes were good to watch but the movie was so tacky that he cannot save it with his sweet charm. Pretty Little Liars Alum Tyler Blackburn was just like he is in Pretty Little Liars which is Okay. Overall, trash this one and don't waste time considering it has Tyler Blackburn and Jeremy Sumpter.

This is essentially a made for TV movie. The story is a bit dis-jointed at times, and not in a especially entertaining way. When the lead character remembers the past, we're subjected to some really artificial camera jerking effect that becomes annoying within seconds. This 'effect' adds nothing to the mix, and in fact has the negative impact of making the viewer break away from the story, and wonder why it was done in the first place.This has really been aimed at the adolescent demographic, but it's still watch-able for someone older, much the same as Mean Girls and such. Don't have any illusions, as this has little in common with Mean Girls, and is hardly destined to become a classic. The acting is average, and certainly not poor, so I'd say give it a watch, but don't expect a lot, as it's only watch-able, which isn't such a bad thing with some of the garbage scripts that get made into movies these days, but that's another story...