Now, we are moving into 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.

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.

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.