Fiamme sull'Amazzonia

Deep in the hot and steamy Amazon jungle, activist Alyssa Rothman (Sandra Bullock) helps a brash photojournalist (Craig Sheffer) investigate the assassination of a famous environmentalist, at the risk of their own lives.

So goes the tag line for this film. I believe that Sandra Bullock wanted to block Roger Corman at New Concorde (formerly New Horizons) from releasing this title NOT because of the nude scene (which really isn't, just shadows and hints of nudity) but because of the thin plot. But it is the nudity angle that will drive the rental market on this direct to video release.

It is only interesting to see Sandra in the film before she became a big star in Speed. Short running time makes it easier to watch as well (78 minutes on the R rated, 85 minutes on the Unrated version).

This movie is so full of over used clichés it is pathetic. Sandra Bullock is beautiful in the movie, but even her acting is very poor at times. Apparently a bad story, bad writing, and the poor acting by others got to her. There is a scene in an office with Ms. Bullock, the obnoxious reporter, and Bullock's boss where it seems like everyone is reading flip charts. The clichés about the evil lumber companies, cattle ranchers, and corrupt law enforcement are about as bad as a Miss America contestant saying she is throughly behind world peace. If these clichés have some thread of truth to them, ignoring the entire movie because of feeling manipulated with them is very likely. I haven't seen something so poorly done since "Billy Jack". If you are especially interested in the real crisis occurring in the Amazon, I recommend that you don't watch this movie.

The reviews for this movie are bad, and they are right. Sandra Bullock was OK, and she looked nice, but she could not salvage this clunker. Craig Sheffer played a very unlikeable character very badly. He was extremely annoying. He plays a part which combines the quintessential "ugly American" with the pushy journalist. Amazingly, he seems to have had a long acting career. Don't bother with this one.

The male star's vocabulary consisted of "one word" The word that would get 'erased' at least fifty times if we were to think this horrible movie would ever make it to the TV screen for humans to watch.

There is a reason this movie was shelved for, how long? 7 years? This should be the first hint.

At any rate, I watched this movie with an open mind. I wanted to like it, and enjoy myself, but there just was not much to it. An Idiot reporter runs around p***ing off the locals and Sandra Bullock meets up with him. I guess there is some environmental activist named santos that meets and unfortunate end, and they are sort of involved. The plot of this movie is so really hard to follow. Maybe because there really is not much of a plot at all. The last 15min are sort of exciting, only because you know it's almost over so you can do something else.

Yes, Sandra has a love scene. No it's exciting enough to watch this movie.

Ever watched a movie that made you keep looking at the VCR to see how long you had been watching it? That is This Movie!

Movie gets a nice big 2 out of 10 from me.