Nowhere To Run

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Action	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1993	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	91 minutes	Other Extras	Cast Filmographies
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region	4	Director	Robert Harmon
Studio Distributor	Columbia Tristar	Starring	Jean-Claude Van Damme Rosanna Arquette Kieran Culkin Ted Levine Joss Ackland
Case	Transparent Amaray	Starring
RRP	$34.95	Music	Mark Isham

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Dolby Digital	2.0
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 ) French (Dolby Digital 2.0 ) German (Dolby Digital 2.0 ) Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 ) Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	English German French Spanish Italian Portuguese Dutch Arabic Czech Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Swedish Turkish Danish	Smoking	Yes

Plot Synopsis

I was reading the production notes for this movie on the front inside cover of the DVD case, and it mentioned that this movie had started off with the working title of Pals, and had been renamed to Nowhere to Run. I feel that I could have suggested something even more appropriate as the title for this film - (Almost) Nothing to Do.

This is a dull movie. Really, really boring. There are a few action sequences thrown in for no good reason to liven up the boredom, but they don't help much. The problem is that the movie does not have any strong characters that you can either love or hate, and none of the characters do anything much. When they do something, you wonder exactly what their motivation was.

Sam (Jean-Claude Van Damme) has been broken out of prison in the film's opening, and best, action sequence. His sidekick is killed in the escape, and so Sam just sets up camp in the middle of nowhere. He helps a damsel in distress (Rosanna Arquette) for no good reason other than he borrowed her salt without asking, and because she has nice breasts. The bad guys want to take away her land, with the help of unconvincing thug Mr Dunston (Ted Levine).

There are a few trademark Van Damme ridiculous one-liners, but minimal violence, much to the movie's detriment.

Transfer Quality

Video

As we have come to expect from Columbia Tristar, this is essentially a perfect video transfer.

The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

The transfer was razor sharp and crystal clear throughout. Shadow detail was reasonable, and there was no low level noise to speak of.

The colours were well rendered at all times.

There were no MPEG artefacts seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some slight telecine wobble during the opening credits, which appeared to be inherent to the print, but that was it. Film artefacts were essentially non-existent.

Audio

There are five audio tracks on this DVD - English, French, German, Italian and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0, surround-encoded soundtracks. I listened to the default English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack.

Dialogue was always clear and easy to understand, not that you'd really want to listen to it.

There were no audio sync problems.

The score by Mark Isham was unremarkable.

The surround channel was aggressively used during the action sequences, and occasionally for some ambience.

The .1 channel received a lot of redirected signal from my surround processor, particularly during the opening of the movie. This bass-heavy opening was almost false advertising in the sense that it created the expectation that this was going to be an all-out action movie, which it certainly was not.

Extras

The usual small helping of Columbia Tristar extras are on this disc. The DVCC splash is on this disc. There are some production notes on the front inside cover of the case.

What's Missing / What's Extra

The Region 1 version of this disc has a Pan & Scan version of the movie as well as the widescreen version, and also has the Theatrical Trailer for Knock Off on it.

Theatrical Trailer

This is presented at an aspect ratio of 4:3, non-16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound which sounded mono. It very much gives the impression that this movie will be a full-on action movie, which it is not. The best action sequence in the movie is given away in the trailer.

Filmographies

This is a limited list of the stars' film credits.

Summary

Nowhere To Run is dull, dull, dull, dull, dull. Definitely only worth a rental unless you are a Van Damme fanatic.

The video quality is essentially perfect.

The audio quality is reasonably good.

The extras are average for Columbia Tristar.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment

DVD	Pioneer DV-505, using S-Video output
Display	Loewe Art-95 95cm direct view CRT in 16:9 mode, via the S-Video input. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder	Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital AddOn Decoder, used as a standalone processor. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Amplification	2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer
Speakers	Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Yamaha B100-115SE subwoofer