'The Cutter' review by MartialHorror

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THE CUTTER(2005)
(Directed by William Tannen)

"While better than most of Seagal's crap, what is with the title? It makes Seagal's titles look stylish and well thought out?"- Signed by MartialHorror.

Plot: A Private Investigator is asked to track down a jewel cutter, who has been kidnapped by old enemies.

Review:

When the end credits of “The Cutter” rolled…..I sniffled a little bit. This truly was the end of Chuck Norris’s career…..Oh, don’t get me wrong. It has nothing to do with the quality of the film. It’s just that after this……He pretty much retired. Out of all the big action stars who fell out of their prime, Chuck went out the most gracefully. His career began in the 70’s, skyrocketed in the 80’s, and then began to falter in the 90’s. But in contrast to guys like Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme, he rebounded by becoming a popular T.V Star, starring in “Walker Texas Ranger”, a show I wasn’t a fan of….But a lot of people were. After that, instead of bombarding us with *beep* films to get a pay check, like so many of his contemporaries did, he did some *beep* films that he simply wanted to do. I wasn’t a fan of “Bells of Innocence”, but it’s major drawback(besides Chuck being misadvertised as the lead) was it’s low budget. Still, it was obvious he did that because of its Christian overtones, and he himself is a devout Christian. He pretty much concluded his films with movies like that. While less religious, they were usually films about values and such. So even if they were bad, at least they were well intentioned, and not done just to buy Norris a new summer house.

This time, Chuck Norris is John Shepherd, a Private Investigator who is only hired when the police strike out(his words, not mine). But for the first act, he feels more like a supporting character as the plot unravels. In a nutshell, a bunch of archeologists find a mummy, but then are suddenly murdered by Dirk(Daniel Bernhardt). It’s revealed that he killed them for the sake of two stones, as well as Aaron’s breastplate(a biblical artifact and probably the reason Chuck did this movie). He takes them and captures Isaac(Benie Kopell), a famous diamond cutter who survived the holocaust. He wants Isaac to cut these diamonds in some immensely overcomplex subplot. His niece, Elizabeth(Joanna Pacula), hires Chuck Shepherd(ack, I mean John Shepherd) to find him and save the day.

I wouldn’t call “The Cutter” a good movie. But it is a good movie compared to most of the crap Steven Seagal puts out. Hell, I’d even put this over “Pistol Whipped” and “Driven to Kill”, two of Seagals “better” movies since his DTV conquest…but that’s saying much. I do see effort in “The Cutter”, especially within the script. It does have a modern day noir feel about it, especially with Chuck’s character. The plot is complex, although it’s also convoluted, and there is some scope. Unfortunately though, the mystery isn’t that good. We pretty much know everything from the first act, but since our hero doesn’t know, we must watch him catch up with us. So while there certainly was effort in the script, it wasn’t necessarily a success.

William Tannen, the director, probably made things worse than they already were. On the positive side, the film had a decent pace, some passable action scenes and unlike the films of Seagal, I could see everything that was going down. But he passes up the opportunity to follow the film noir approach that the script offers and just makes another generic DTV action film. But what he really did wrong had to do with some of the editing. For some reason, he likes repeating scenes as flashbacks, often adding a cheesy echo, as if it wasn’t irritating enough. This alone brings it down a whole notch.

But what keeps it afloat is Chuck Norris(John) himself. I’m not going to say that he’s a good actor, but he’s good enough. There is something upbeat and likeable about the guy. This makes me happy, as JCVD and Seagal usually play overly serious, downer characters. While it’s actually a boring character, as John is shown to be a kickass fighter, brilliant investigator and he seems to know everything, I like the fact that the movie seems to be aware of Chuck’s age. At this point, he would be in his mid 60’s and while he does kick a lot of ass, he also gets his ass handed to him. His age seems to be the factor there, but they never bring it up. I personally like that approach. I also appreciate that he doesn’t get a hot, young love interest. Instead he gets a hot, middle aged love interest.

The acting is surprisingly good all around. Joanna Pacula(Elizabeth) looks much younger than she is, but also shows some impressive acting talents. Bernie Kopell(Isaac) brings an air of class to the film. I loved Daniel Bernhardt(Dirk) as the villain. I know him as the lead from those “Bloodsport” sequels, but he surprisingly makes an intense villain here. I’m glad he has a few fight scenes with Norris as well.

“The Cutter” isn’t really a good film, but it’s fine as direct-to-DVD fare. Chuck Norris has what most of these guys like JCVD, Don “The Dragon” Wilson and even Seagal has, they can be in *beep* movies but they’re so cool that we love to watch them anyway…..Okay, maybe not Seagal these days...Although I always seem to watch him. He needs to take some lessons from Chuck. Chuck might not be the greatest actor out there, but he tries, and I like that about him. Oh yeah, how dare I not mention the fight scenes? They’re pretty standard. Sometimes they’re alright though, considering Chuck’s age. I always wondered what would happen if Chuck had a good choreographer for these movies…..I guess we’ll never know. But thank you Chuck for a fun career. You’re movies may have not always been good, maybe even often not good, but as a kid, I loved them all and as an adult, I still enjoy them anyway. His leading man career began with a modest action film, “Breaker! Breaker!” and ended with another modest action film, “The Cutter”.

Violence: Some……PG-13 worthy, but they rated it R for some reason.

Nudity: A possible, implied, off-screen rape……Not sure, but you don’t see anything.

Overall: Watch “The Cutter” if you’re into DTV action films, Chuck Norris films, or even DTV Seagal films....because it's slightly better than those. I had some fun with it.

2/4 Stars


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