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Director: Ruggero Deodato.
Year: 1985.
Starring: Lisa Blount, Leonard Mann, Willie Aames, Richard Lynch, Michael Berryman, and Eriq La Salle, with special appearences by John Steiner and Karen Black.
Let me "cut" to the chase: "Cut and Run" is by no means a perfect movie, by it's a great way to kill an hour and a half.
Our actors are interesting bunch. Lisa Blount and Leonard Mann as our heroes are both a likeable enough pair, but don't add to awful much to the movie. Less interesting yet still likable are our secondary heroes, played by Willies Aames and the gorgeous Barbara Magnolfi. Aames plays the story's catalyst essentially, and again as likable as his character is, he does little to forward the story after he's rescued. More useless is Magnolfi in a whiney role, but at least she gets very naked. Far cooler are our main villains, played by Richard Lynch and his compodre Michael Berryman. Lynch, despite having little screen time and fewer lines, still manages to make his presence known in the role of an ambiguously nefarious coke-smuggling renegade colonel. Cooler yet is Berryman as a sadistic, seemingly unstoppable assassin leading a legion of rainforest natives as Lynch's own personal army. Good stuff.
"Cut and Run" is something of an oddity among Italian genre films. Thanks to its lush and high-brow cinematography courtesy of Alberto Spagnoli, it lacks that gritty yet cheap feel many jungle thrillers of its time had. Also very worth mentioning is the film's music, composed by the indomitable Claudio Simonetti. Much of the music isn't terribly memorably, but a screeching sound effect signaling a surpise scare or similar situation, as well as the catchy, disco dance song-esque main theme, are more than worth a listening to alone.
Presented here is also a very good and satisfying gore ratio. We are treated to multiple decapatations, a breif but well-done disemboweling, and a memorable scene in which
Spoiler...a guy is ripped in half, crotch-first, by a jungle trap.
Other assorted moments of typical action movie violence are scattered throughout.
On a final note, keep in mind that, despite this movie's occasionally heavy-duty gore and scare scenes, this is really more of a jungle adventure-actioner, not a straight-up horror movie.
Overall, "Cut and Run" is a fun way to kill some time. The only major weaknesses we're given are likable but less than stellar protagonists and an occasionally choppy pace, but we're at least left over with cool antagonists, nifty action scenes, cheesy but catchy music, lush photography, lots of naked girls, and cool gore moments. A 7/10.
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