Fugitives – Action Hero Movies

This movie gets started with a cocktail of unpleasantries, from extreme queer exhibitionism to crying babies.

But it gets interesting shortly after 20 mins in, when Jean-Claude Van Damme gets essentially kidnapped by the agency he worked for, after disobeying a direct order. He’s held on a mysterious prison island and presented with the choice of keep working from a tight leash else be killed immediately. He manages to escape, and goes after the man who kidnapped his wife & child, with the help of his heavily pierced weird friend played by Dennis Rodman. Mickey Rourke plays the main antagonist in this movie. That’s all the significant characters already.

I rate it somewhere between So-So and OK, due to its balance of strengths and weaknesses. The last quarter an hour can get particularly boring for people who have seen this movie a few times before, even if not in the last few years.

Nowhere To Run is a decent little movie, a bit slower than Van Damme’s best but still featuring some cool scenes, and is generally well poised – decent sound and camera work. The plot is a very simple one and the action is less frequent than some of Van Damme’s movies, but it’s still a respectable film for Van Damme fans to enjoy.

Van Damme is his usual cool self. Rosanna Arquette plays the lead female role quite convincingly. Kieran Culkin and Tiffany Taubman play the woman’s kids – mediocre performances by them, but kids are rarely good actors. Ted Levine and Joss Ackland are convincing as the main antagonists – the muscle and the brains respectively. Anthony Starke is pretty good in his very brief appearance near the start, as the guy who busts Van Damme out of jail. Edward Blatchford does alright as the bent sheriff who was courting the lead female until Van Damme arrived to provide a better option. Gene LeBell also appears for a minute, as the driver of a digger who tries to kill Van Damme.