I love this movie so much

Best movie of this year hands down!

best movie i've ever seen.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Despite being later copied in 1997's FIRE DOWN BELOW, this is actually one of Van Damme's lesser films from his 'classic' period. It looks like he was trying to break away from his martial arts background here into more serious acting (which obviously failed), so fans will be disappointed that there are none of those famed kicks to the head. In fact, the film is extremely slow-moving, the monotony broken up only by a few good action sequences (the barn fire coming to mind). Adding insult to injury, a good deal of the film is made up with sickly sentimentalising in the form of Rosanna Arquette, who comes across as a really poor actress here, and an obnoxious child, namely Kieran Culkin, the younger brother of Macaulay. Yes, I cheered when someone smacked his gob at the end of this film.The fight scenes, when they do come, are pretty good, but sadly they're over very quickly. The first time we see Van Damme, he's beating up his guards, which doesn't exactly endear his character to the audience, later he flashes two young children in the woods. I'm not surprised they arrested this guy. The plot about landowners using dodgy methods to get rid of the woman living on their land is nothing new, and extremely basic - you could figure out what was going to happen next with ease.The acting is okay here, but strictly of the television-movie level, with the aforementioned Arquette and Culkin going through the paces. Van Damme seems to be a little out of his depth, as if his heart wasn't really in the film, and we don't really get to know him very well. He's not at his best. Of the bad guys, Ted Levine provides a worthy opponent for Van Damme, while Joss Ackland enjoys a seedy role (almost exactly the same role as he played in LETHAL WEAPON 2). NOWHERE TO RUN is passable entertainment, but you could do a lot better.

***SPOILER*** Jean-Claude Van Damme is disbarred lawyer and escaped convict Sam Gillen who's partner in crime Billy, Anthony Starke, he took the rap for in gunning down a bank guard that he's now serving a life sentence for. Billy grateful for what Sam did for him attempts to free him from a prison bus. This leads to Billy's death in him getting shot from behind while he and Sam were making their escape in Billy's getaway car.Now all alone with the heat, police & state troopers, bearing down on him Sam makes his way to the far off Anderson farm and wait for things to cool off. It's also there where he and Billy hid the loot from their last and final bank robbery. At first Sam spends his time sneaking in and out of the Anderson house looking for food and salt & pepper shakers to give his cooked bland and tasteless stakes, from the game he hunts down, some flavor. It's also when stealing the houses condiments that Sam runs into Mookie, Kieran Culkin, the son of the lady of the house widowed Clydie Anderson, Rosanne Arquette. Mookie who's father died when he was an infant looks up to the strapping and handsome Sam as a father figure to play baseball as well as go out hunting and fishing with. At first planning to get the buried bank money and scram to parts unknown with it before the police and state troopers get a bead on him Sam decides to make himself at home at the Anderson place while planning his next move. That's until Sam finds out that big time land developer Franklin Hale, Joss Ackland, and his paid goons headed by a Mr. Duston, Ted Levine, want to run Clydie together with her son Mookie and daughter Bree, Tiffany Tabman, out of their home and build a high rise condo in its place! With Clydie refusing to sign her home and farm away to the greedy and evil Franklin Hale he gets Duston & Co. to tighten the screws on her! This has Sam who's now a permanent resident as well as Clydie's new boyfriend a bit ticked off to say the least!Other complications soon arrive in the relationship between Sam & Clydie in that her former boyfriend and protector from Franklin Hale & Co. local Sheriff Lonnie Cole, Edward Blatchford, who's actually on Franklin Hale's payroll gets a bit jealous in Sam taking Clydie away from him. Sam seeing all the trouble that he's causing and that it's only a matter of time that his criminal past is discovered by the local police, as well as Franklin Hale, takes off in his, which he bought from Clydie for $300.00, newly restored 1969 650cc Triumh T-120 Bonneville motorcycle only to be chased down by what looks like an army of police and state troopers on foot car horseback and even helicopter. Making his way back to the Anderson place Sam gets there just in time before Hale and his goons lead by his security and torture specialist Duston brutally work Clydie and her kids over in order to force her sign her house and farm away to him.***SPOILERS**** Sam who just about had enough of living on the lamb from the law and is more then willing to pay from his crime as a bank robber, Billy in a tape that he made before he was killed exonerated Sam in the bank guard killing, goes all out against Hale and his goons even with the the entire state police force and state troopers hot on his tail! Before he's finally arrested, by Sheriff Cole no less, Sam does a number on Hale & Co. especially Mr.Duston who was itching to have it out with him during the entire film. By the time the movie was over Duston if he were still alive & conscious realized that was a Big Big Big mistake on his part!

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.

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.