Michael Ledo
Ana Villafañe stars as Josephine Russo, a NYC woman placed in the witness protection program. She finds herself in the small town of Longview, Montana where she is given the identity of a teen under the care of social services. She has flashbacks to her instructions as to no contact, no cell phones, and no speaking Spanish, although when angered Spanish pours from her mouth. The high school she now attends has a group of girls similar to "the plastics." They are introduced with their own swagger music, and for a moment I thought this was going to be a pretty cool movie...but it didn't last long.Josephine takes a liking to a boy named Jesse (Tyler Blackburn). Of course the head plastic (Kelcie Stranahan) doesn't like Josephine because her ex-bf is hitting on her too.It isn't hard to figure out what is going to happen, if it didn't there wouldn't be a film.The movie has a made for TV quality to it, down to the cliche script, second tier acting, and cheap soundtrack.Ana, who was an artist in the film, sings a song during the closing credits to my surprise. Clearly this film was designed to showcase her talents. Too bad the script didn't support her. Teen movie all the way.PARENTAL GUIDE: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.
edwagreen
The ending is off-base. Once anyone under the witness protection business is found out, they immediately change your identity once again.After viewing her parents killed by the mob, our heroine is given such protection and moved from NYC to Montana. She is warned to curtail everything about her former life.Of course, the movie starts to dwell with typical high school life of jealousy, the boyfriends, and the winning of acceptance by all concerned.Of course, the film also deals with the ways that the mob is able to successfully search for the girl. Naturally, there is the standard confrontation at the end.
Tss5078
One of my favorite actors, Jeremy Sumpter, leads a mostly unknown cast in the new direct-to-video drama, Hiding. I liked the concept behind this movie, but I don't like the part of the story they chose to focus on. The writers spent too much time on the present, without telling us enough about the past. While we have an idea of what happened, watching the beginning of this film is like arriving at the theater fifteen minutes late and having to play catch up the whole time. Joe (Ana Villafane) witnessed a murder in her home town of New York City. Being that she is the key witness against a major crime family, she is put into the witness protection program, given a cover story, and put into a new life in the middle of nowhere. The film begins with Joe being dropped at her new home, with a very vague description of what happened, what's expected of her, and how long she'll be there. From there the film kind of turns into a CW teen drama, which wasn't very appealing, however the filmmakers used flashbacks and side angles, to stop it from turning into Dawson's Creek. Sumpter plays one of two guys interested in Joe, as always he was dynamic, but here he was also funny and charming, a clear opposite of the other love interest, who just seemed to drone on and on. As for the lead, in her debut role, Ana Villafane was nothing short of terrific. This is not the kind of movie I go for and the focus was not on the part of the script that interests me, but the combination of Villafane and Sumpter, along with flashbacks and side stories did keep the film going. My description probably sounds quite dull, but Hiding keeps on moving and keeps your attention by using some pretty unconventional methods. It's not the best movie I've ever seen, but it was most definitely entertaining.
Saad Khan
Hiding – TRASH IT (F) Hiding is as bad as I had expected it to be. The only reason I watched it because sometimes indie movies surprisingly come out very good or at least good time pass. But sadly none can be sad about the movie. The lead actress is as bad as she looks in the movie. Nobody likes an obnoxious ugly girl, I don't know how these girls get roles oh I know actually. Jeremy Sumpter was the only good thing in the movie, his scenes were good to watch but the movie was so tacky that he cannot save it with his sweet charm. Pretty Little Liars Alum Tyler Blackburn was just like he is in Pretty Little Liars which is Okay. Overall, trash this one and don't waste time considering it has Tyler Blackburn and Jeremy Sumpter.