Cutaway - Jede Sekunde zählt

The successful undercover agent Victor Cooper (Stephen Baldwin) is assigned for his ninth mission: to find how the loading of drug that is being brought to Miami. He suspects that the drug is coming through the air and joins a team of sky diving, under the leadership of Red Line (Tom Berenger), who is a fanatic and considered the athlete number one in this sport in the world. Due to his profile of winner, Vic gets involved with the group and he "disconnects" from his position of infiltrated agent, "connecting" with the team.

"Cutaway" is a film that gives the sensation of "dejavu", and the viewer has the sensation that had seen it before. Indeed, it is a collection of clichés, using the same storyline of "Point Break" but in the air, instead of in the sea; or "Donnie Brasco", just to mention two famous movies. However, "Cutaway" reasonably works and is watchable, mainly based on the great shootings in the air. Fans of Tom Berenger may enjoy and he has a good performance in the role of a charismatic leader, capable of any action to win in the sports he embraced. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Instinto Radical" ("Radical Instinct")

Manos walks an interesting line between hype and facts all through the commentary. He stresses that Stephen Baldwin (Agent Vic Cooper) and Tom Berenger (Red Line) did their own stunts and without actually saying "all their own stunts", certainly implies it. Clearly that's not the case. He also implies that Dennis Rodman (Turbo) does his own stunts as well, but from what I understand from other sources, Rodman never even got near a plane in flight.

Manos does admit that he did -some- of the stunts for Red Line when Berenger was "unavailable." Manos' wife, Pam, does the skydiving for Maxine Bahns (Star), the female lead. Manos never fesses up as to who does the more advanced skydiving scenes (head down, swoop pond, ect.) for Baldwin. With the exception of Casper Van Dien (Delmira), those really are the Golden Knights and that's the wind tunnel at Fort Bragg, SC.

There are a couple of interesting factoids sprinkled throughout the commentary such as how so and so shot was done, how some of the action sequences were performed and that Marcos A. Ferraez (Ground Rush) was actually a skydiving buddy of Baldwin's before production was even given the green light. However, the really interesting stuff to me was how the script was developed and how some of the scenes and events were based upon Manos' true life experiences. I got the feeling that maybe at some point Manos actually had considered the tandem drug running scheme and he does mention that it had been done a couple of times maybe ten or so years ago to actually help finance a Nationals team.

I'm not sure where fact and hype merge here.

Manos does explain things about keeping the story, costumes and sport simple enough for the audience to understand yet "real", but he never explains his choice of the "8-way speed star" event. I'm thinking just 2 more people would have made that a lot more "real", but there was probably a budget consideration (23 shooting days x 2 people, costumes, hotel rooms, catering, pack jobs, ect.).

To my surprise, there are ALSO comments on yet another audio track from Baldwin and Bahns. I haven't yet fully listened to those, but it's clear from the sample I did listen to that they must have been having a -really- good time, maybe even a little tipsy (maybe a LOT tipsy), when they recorded them. I'll have to fully listen to those in the near future.

Paul

I really enjoyed this one. Some top notch actors kept the plot moving well. The idea of drug smuggling by sky diving is exciting and quite plausible. I'd be amazed if I learned it had never been done in real life.

Seeing Rodman act was a kick. You could tell he was enjoying himself. Ron Silver and Tom Berenger proved their veteran status. Steven Baldwin and Maxine Bonds (sp) play a pretty hot couple (although she's so hot she'd look sexy with any lead). The sky diving was thrilling. I heard that Berenger and Baldwin actually got certified in sky diving for the picture and did some of their own stunts. Looking forward to buying this one when it comes out on video.

This movie is a head rush. From the beginning scene to very end, the action is out of sight. The plot is basic, but still gets the point across. I loved watching how people trained to perfect their sport. I have been skydiving a few times and this movie sent chills up and down my spine. This movie is a worth see movie and if you don't feel like skydiving after seeing this movie, you'd better check your pulse to see if you are still living!

Somehow I got the feeling that they left out a considerable amount of scenes that make much more sense of the whole drugs angle in the movie. The moment Stephen Baldwin goes undercover you will get a "Point Break" flashback and will realize how great that movie is compared to this little movie. But that said I must admit that "Cutaway" has some amazing sky diving scenes. Those stunts alone is reason enough to see this movie. And probably the director realized that since he didn't make much of the plot. Tom Berenger is great as always but thought he was far too underused as he could have provided much more depth to his character and story if he had more scenes. The interactions between Ron Silver and Stephen Baldwin could have been avoided entirely since they add nothing to the conflicts an undercover agent has doing his job. Since it already is made clear from the first scene that Stephen Baldwin is not doing his job out of a sense of duty but simply to be the best in whatever activity he is presented with. The scenes with Ron Silver create an expectation of an impact that never occurs at least not as big as it could have been. So in short forget about the plot and just enjoy the beautiful skydiving scenes!