Some folks felt the timing of the release of Nowhere to Hide was a bit off. For many Americans, this Canadian film hit too close to home when it closely followed the repeated groundings of U.S. Army and Navy Blackhawk helicopters, which fell from the sky so often that military personnel nicknamed them "crashhawks."

Marine Major Rob Cutter (Daniel Hugh Kelly) is an aviation crash investigator who discovers a faulty part is causing helicopter crashes.

Somebody wants the faulty part to remain secret. They kill Rob, but his young son (Robin MacEachern) picks up the part and puts it on his transformer. Now the bad guys are determined to get the part, which Barbara Cutter (Amy Madigan), a retired Marine captain and pilot, does not even know she has.

The bad guys are not going to stop until they get the part. Barbara is determined to clear Rob's name, but nobody will help her. She turns to a newspaper reporter, Mark Halstead (Clark Johnson), who's been after the crash story, but gets killed quickly.

With nowhere to hide, Barbara heads into the mountains in search of Rob's former best friend and Vietnam veteran Ben (Michael Ironside), a hermit with a highly fortified home guarded by dobermans. Unfortunately, young Johnny does have that fascination with adding parts to his transformer, including military tracking devices. His sticky-fingers habit keeps the bad guys hot on their trail and pushing for that final bloody showdown.

Madigan is outstanding in this role. She runs through the entire spectrum of emotions with full credibility. She goes from playful buddy to loving wife to bereaved spouse to lethal warrior.

I also loved Ironside. He really nailed the part of the bitter veteran who's hiding from the world and just wants to be left alone.

If you like action, this film should suit you very well. It has car chases and crashes, gunfights, explosions, military war games, helicopter flying and crashes, and dog attacks. There is plenty to feed the adrenalin junkie. With all this action, you know there has to be a ton of special effects, and they are good ones.

The writing for this story was great. It is one of those fast-moving films that does not really have time to build strong subplots, though they are there. By the time they cover the conspiracy and eliminate all the potential information leaks, they have used up the time allowed for a movie. They never deviate from their course of action or slow the pace until the end.

This was not the ending I expected. I thought it would go the other way, but I liked this one, too. Nowhere to Hide is a good, solid action film that delivers a full load of entertainment.