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TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

stephen-morton "Nowhere to Hide" is a film unlike any other I have seen, and likely unlike any you have seen either. It is a film alive with the possibilities of cinema, and not afraid to stretch the boundaries between pulp and art.The story centers on a detective named Woo, and his partner, Kim. Woo is a hard-living bulldog of a cop with not a little Popeye Doyle in him--he even wears a funny squashed cap, though it is a fishing hat rather than a porkpie. Kim is a by-the-book family man. Together, they attempt to track down a murderer over the course of several weeks. The plot is little more than a succession of action, chase, and stake-out scenes as they work their way through the killer's accomplices until they find the man himself. Their investigation is accomplished through plenty of illegal beatings and searches-without-warrants, but somehow the characters remain likable and entertaining to watch, due largely to the strong, theatrical performance of Park Joong-hoon in the central role. Humor is also sprinkled liberally throughout, both brilliant physical gags and a few knowing verbal jokes, creating a movie full of action and fun.But the film is only really about this plot to the extent that it allows the director to play around with the possibilities of film-making. Lee takes great joy in cutting up action sequences in new and exciting ways, crafting a style somewhere between John Woo and Wong Kar-Wai in its brilliant use of the camera. He makes potentially simple sequences new and exciting through the use of slow motion, quick cuts, and "jump dissolves" in combinations never before seen. He goes back and forth between lovingly dwelling on falling leaves and snow flakes to slicing swords and swinging fists, endowing each with unique beauty and cool.The two stand-out sequences in the film are probably the first murder scene and the final showdown. The first murder takes place at "the 40 Steps" and attains a bizarre, haunting beauty against the background of bright yellow leaves and falling rain, all set to the BeeGee's early hit "Holiday." The final showdown is again in the rain, this time pouring down in steel sheets as Woo and the murderer face each other mano a mano. A strain of "Holiday" floats briefly through the soundtrack, as the character's fists fly super-fast then super-slow. (Incidentally, this scene was clearly an influence on the final fight in The Matrix Revolutions.)The film has been criticized for having an unclear plot and lacking character depth. These things are mostly missing, true, but it is only because the director deliberately chose not to focus on them. Here is how he describes the point of his movie:"In a Monet painting," Lee says, "the theme is not the water lily. The water lily is just the object to paint light upon. As it floats, we see its reflection on the water, and that is what we call painterly. My intention is the same. In this film, I wanted to show the filmic. The story and the characters are not the main focus of my film. Movement is. Movement enters the other elements in this film to create kinetic action."The film, then, should be viewed in this spirit and not as a simple action film. If you approach this movie as an exercise in innovative style and gleeful genre pastiche (the movie shows clear influence from John Woo, The French Connection, and Sergio Leone--including the harmonica line from Once Upon a Time in the West), you will find yourself awed and delighted. Looking for deeper meaning, however, is futile: the style IS the substance.

ExpendableMan Emblazoned on the cover of the UK DVD release for 'Nowhere to Hide' is a line of text taken from a newspaper review claiming it is "a sure-fire hit with fans of Hard Boiled." Written on the back is another similar exclamation, stating "Is the world ready for the next John Woo?" In terms of marketing they certainly picked their strategy yet it's an extremely misleading tag. In fact, I'm not sure either of those quotes come from people who have actually seen it, because this is more of a Dirty Harry style cop thriller than a Chow Yun-Fat shoot 'em up with a body count so astronomical it's a miracle there's anyone left alive in East Asia.The story (what little of it there is) revolves around two Detectives, Woo and Kim as they attempt to track down a killer named Chang Sungmin. And that's all you need to know really because there's very little in the way of expanding on this in the film whatsoever. The murder committed at the start which triggers the hunt is given no explanation or motive, simply brushed off as 'drug related' and the rest of the running time seems committed to sticking in as many fancy camera tricks as possible and this is where it all falls flat."Nowhere to Hide" you see, wants to be cool. Desperately. It wants to be spoken of in the same breath as Tarantino and it yearns for this hipster status so much it falls flat on it's face, the posturing braggard's mask slipping and revealing the sweaty nerd underneath. Just look at the characters walking in slow motion towards the camera with rock music playing behind them, the whole sorry enterprise just screams "LOVE US" so much it makes you cringe. And this is carried over into leading man Joong-Hoon Park's performance. He's one of these stereotypical 'bad guy' cops you see that defies the regulations and matches it with a cocky swagger. And this loosely translates as him beating people up, threatening women and setting his face to maximum leer and gurn mode throughout while his attempt at swaggering has him walking like a hunched over prat for the whole movie.One area it does succeed however is in the dizzying showmanship of the numerous cinematography gimmicks on display. The first five minutes for instance are filmed entirely in black and white and there are loads of intriguing tricks littered throughout, providing a pulsing sense of adrenalin that the plot cannot provide. It may go overboard at times (do we really need to have the shot of several policemen running into a hiding place in Matrix style slow motion?) but this flashy excess does help it stand out from the crowd.In short then, not a successful movie. If you want a good Asian cop thriller, ignore this and go straight for Infernal Affairs. If you've already seen it, just watch it again. This is no substitute at all. The camera tricks may provide a good talking point, but the irritating lead, non-existent story and frankly rather rubbish action scenes let everything down. Style over substance to a T.

Acharne I trusted in my IMDb brethren that this movie would be at least mildly original and entertaining. Well I was wrong. This was quite possibly one of the worst movies of the past ten years. The direction was that of someone trying to make a European style film while working with a really bad Hong Kong wannabe script. Even the box claimed it was 'In the style of John Woo'. Ha ha. John Woo has made both good and bad movies but they had directions, plot, and occasionally even a touch of character development. This movie had nothing. It had disjointed scenes that didn't follow in to each other at all, attempts at comedy that looked forced and worse yet, a confused looking cast. In one seen the lead jumps on another guy and the camera shakes. Yes that's right, it shakes. I haven't seen anything that lame since 'Hard to Die'. This movie was a painful bore with misleading billing and absolutely no redeeming qualities except that it ends eventually. Please don't waste your time, go and watch teletubbies, Jaws 4, Rocky 5, ANYTHING other than this tripe.

Gareth Hacking I really enjoyed watching this film, I was on the edge of my seat most of the time.It's great to watch a film where the director is in love with the possibilities of film, making use of every trick in the cinematic book. This everything-and-the-kitchen-sink style seems popular in Asia as Tears of the Black Tiger had used a similar approach. Sure, the detective's are made out to be as vicious as the criminals they're chasing but I can't think of too many films that portrayed the police in a positive light (ok, I'll let you have 'Police Academy'). The only problems for me were the somewhat plodding pace between the action sequences and that the audience never got to know anything about Sungmin.