Le sang du diamant

The Cutter is basically the last action film starring the great Chuck Norris before he decided to retire from Hollywood altogether outside of a rare appearance here and there like in Expendables 2. Now, the movie is a Nu Image produced film, and they are known for mostly producing straight to DVD movies and I am guessing this was a straight to DVD distribution in 2005.

Anyway, right to the point. Definitely a decent to very good action movie for Chuck Norris to end on a high note. He plays a guy coming to the rescue of an aging man who worked cutting jewelry. The Cutter, played by Love Boat great Bernie Koppell is kidnapped and forced to cut two stones into a certain type of stone and here is where Chuck comes into the story and tries to rescue him and, I don't want to spoil it but you know the rest, Chuck always comes through.

The villain in this is Daniel Bernhart, from the awful Bloodsport part 3 - 5 movies. He does a decent job playing the villain and has a damn good final fight scene with our hero Chuck Norris.

It's a simple story, not much meat into this but The Cutter is an enjoyable action film to watch on a boring day. It's main attraction would be that this was the final action film starring one of the icons of the genre in Chuck Norris.

After a deadly kidnapping rescue gone wrong, a guilt ridden detective (Chuck Norris) goes out on his own to successfully rescue an aged diamond cutter from the hands of a murderous thief. With the kidnapped man's niece Elizabeth aiding in his rescue, Shep learns the diamond cutter perfected his skill during his years as an Auschwitz prisoner. Shep must learn the truth about the cutter's past to unravel the clues and rescue him before it is too late.

Being a fan of old school-style action films I enjoyed this Chuck Norris actioner, his last film before retirement, which could have been released in the 1980's. At 65, Chuck has still got the moves, kicking the bad guys, throwing them out of the window. His showdown with Daniel Bernhardt is quite good. Incidentally, Bernhardt makes a good villain, a chameleon-like character, a master of disguises. The Nazi and diamond-related story makes a change from the usual terrorist storyline, there's some good action, and a fast-paced plot, though the editing can be a bit jumpy and the story a little confusing. The Cutter is not exactly at the level of Code of Silence/Lonewolf McQuade, but it's better than any of late 80's-early 90's Norris films (Hitman, Sidekick, Hellbound etc.)

"The Cutter" is an action movie starring everybody's favorite punchline: Chuck Norris. The movie should be a no-strings-attached action flick and because it doesn't succeed at that, I can't help but be let down by it.

The plot: An old diamond cutter named Isaac (Bernie Kopell) gets kidnapped by Dirk (Daniel Bernhardt) and he is put in a cell to cut a centuries-old diamond. John Shepard (Norris) is the detective who has to save him. The problem with the movie is that it tries too hard. There's some dialogue and situations involving the holocaust that hurt the flow of the movie. It's distracting. The movie's heart is the right place though.

Chuck Norris does a decent job with the material he's given, but basically he's coasting. What Norris does excel at is his "martial arts". I put that in quotes because we all know he's pretty lame, but when you see it, it's still kind of exciting. There are two good fights in the film: The one on the bus and the end fight. The only problem is that the action is cut too fast to see, but you can make out Norris and not a stunt double (most of the time).

The movie in a nutshell: It's a 90 minute "Walker, Texas Ranger" episode with more explosions.

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Set in Spokane, Washington , USA ,the suspenseful plot centered around a two-fisted detective named John Shepherd (Chuck Norris) who comes to the aid of an aged diamond cutter (Bernie Kopell) and his niece (Joanna Pacula) . When the veteran Jew cutter is kidnapped John goes into action. This time Chuck Norris confronting an ominous psycho-killer named Dirk (Daniel Bernhardt) who will stop at nothing to get his aims . Along the way there is developing a screenplay revolving around diamond cutting , pursued Jewish people from concentration camps , jewelry robbing , a violent killer and previous Nazis tracking down a cutter . The past holds the key!

This Chuck Norris recital contains action-packed , thrills , car chases , chills and lots of blood and violence . Chuck Norris demonstrates still his qualities as an action hero on the fights against the largest-than-life murderous , an expert fighter : Daniel Bernhart , by means of punches , slaps , kicks , bounds and leaps . This is a film financed by Milennium pictures : Boaz Davidson , Trevor Short , Danny Dimbort , Avi Lerner , Danny Lerner , as long time ago Norris said goodbye to Menahem Golan- Yoran Globus , from Cannon film company , who produced a lot of Chuck movies . Large support cast formed by usual secondaries of the 80s and 90s , such as : Daniel Bernhardt , Bernie Kopell , Todd Jensen , Rick Avery , Marshall Teague and the always gorgeous Tracy Scoggins. This action-thriller is an inferior Norris film , in fact Norris was far from his best period with hits , such as : ¨The Octagon¨ , ¨An eye for an eye¨ , ¨Forced vengeance¨ , ¨Lone Wolf MacQuade¨ ,¨Missing in action trilogy¨ , ¨Delta Force¨ , among others . Rating : Average but entertaining . The picture will appeal to Chuck Norris fans though results to be a so-so outing , and after making this movie Chuck retired from acting.

It contains a moving and stirring score by Elia Cmiral , as well as atmospheric cinematography by Peter Moss , shot on location in Spokane , Washington State. The motion picture was regular but professionally directed by William Tannen . Bill Tannen directed in 1984 his first feature, "Flashpoint" for Tri Star and HBO . It starred Kris Kristofferson, Treat Williams, Rip Torn, Tess Harper and Jean Smart. He has directed ten other feature films for Cannon, Village RoadShow, Disney, ShowTime, Millenium, LifeTime, etc. Bill has also directed several television series', music videos and episodes as High tide , Mowgli , Epic adventures of Tarzan , Hollywood Detective . And some films as Night of Terror , Ozzie , Nobody Knows Anything! , Love lies bleeding , Deadly Illusion , Flashpoint and Hero and the terror with Chuck Norris .

The acting in this movie was surprisingly good and very believable. Of course, it was fairly Hollywoodish in some parts, but I personally enjoyed it. If you are a fan of action, then this film is definitely for you. It has everything in that regard from guns to martial arts. Chuck Norris does a fine job of fighting and he and Ms. Pacula do a great job together uncovering who has kidnapped her uncle and why, but there is no romance at all between them. It does have a historical point to it as well, which I thought was interesting. I loved how it all tied back into the Judaism, that made it interesting if you are a fan of history at all. Some things happened way too easily for the characters, but some of it was believable. Spokane Washington is where the film was set, and coming from WA myself, I think that they could have filmed somewhere else that was smaller and had a far more interesting film with more scenery. All in all, this film was interesting and if you want to see an action packed Chuck Norris movie, this one is for you!