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Researching a story on drugrunners in Miami, TV reporter Fran (Lisa
Blount) and her cameraman Mark (Leonard Mann) stumble over a picture of
Tommy (Willie Aames), the son of their boss Allo (Richard Bright), who has
disappeared in the Amazon jungle months ago ... and thus it doesn't take
them long to persuade Allo to send them down to the Amazon jungle to a)
find his son, and b) interview General Horne (Richard Lynch), a man who
seems to have mysteriously survived the Jonestown Massacre and who seems
to have his hands in the drugrunning business one way or another ...
... Tommy meanwhile is held in Vlado's (John Steiner) heroin production
workshop, somewhere in the middle of the jungle. His attempts to escape
have added up to naught so far, but he doesn't give up and makes another
plan, to escape by the supply-airplane that night ... and he wants to take
Ana (Valentina Forte), the only girl here who was ever nice to him, with
him. But fate intervenes, and before the supply plane even arrives, a
bunch of savage natives overrun the camp and kill everyone in sight ...
everyone but Tommy and Ana that is, but the two get seperated ...
Later, Fran and Mark arrive with the supply plane, but their pilot
(Carlos De Carvalho) is killed upon arrival. For some reason though, the
natives seem to not even take notice of Fran and Mark, so they survive the
night and the next morning find Ana. The three of them decide to take a
hike through the jungle to the next village ... but it's not long before
Ana is brutally killed by the natives. Then Fran and Mark stumble over
Tommy and they decide to make the rest of the way by boat ... but soon
enough, they are captured by General Horne and his men (exactly the
natives who have overrun the camp), and the general just doesn't have a
liking to nosey reporters ... so he orders to have them killed in the
morning.
Meanwhile though, Tommy's father Allo has figured out where his son and
Fran and Mark are from the TV transmissions Fran regularly sent him and
has organized a rescue mission.
When General Horne the next day hears helicopters approaching his camp,
he agrees to do an interview with Fran after all ... and has himself
beheaded live in front of the camera.
With their leader gone, Horne's native tribe is easily overrun, Tommy
is saved, and Mark and Fran fly off in a waterplane that just happens to
be around - but of course, the natives' hunky lead henchman (Michael
Berryman from The Hills have Eyes)
has hidden in the plane, and just before the credits roll, they have to
kill him too.
Ruggero Deodato's third expedition into cannibal country - though
technically speaking, the natives are not cannibals as in eating other
humans, but are just as violent - mixes some tried-and-true genre
elements with elements of drugrunner films and a bit of factoids from the
Jonestown Massacre ... but the mix is much more coherent as it sounds on
paper: On the plus side, Cut and Run is a competently done violent
jungle adventure, on the debit side though the film is just that and
nothing more, the script is pretty much run-of-the-mill (and even a bit
muddled), direction never exceeds the competent-level, acting is
pretty much so-so (with exceptions, e.g. Richard Lynch) and the film
totally lacks any memorable setpieces.
So, Cut and Run is well-done, but it's not a good film. It's not too
bad either ... but who wants to see a film that's not too bad ?
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