Ruggero 'we need more animal deaths and rape here' Deodato manages to almost make a decent film without all the disturbing crap, just like he did with Atnaaanalanais Interceptors, only this time he does seem to be reminding the world that he was the director of Cannibal Holocaust (Emmerdale version) and Last Cannibal World of Emmerdale. This time some guys are killing coke dealers world wide and stealing their stuff, prompting a mong journalist to try and track down Richard Lynch, who seems to be tied in with all the stuff that's going on, plus his slim line bald murder guy. Michael Barrymore. Michael's fresh from drowning folk in his swimming pool and has graduated to killing everyone involvoed in the coke trade and my god polish beer is strong. Volvo? The jouranlist and her camera dude head out to the jungle to meet John Stiener (the best thing about this film) and see first hand the work of crazy cult leader Richard lynch. Blah blah blood, blah blah gore, blah blah boobs, blah bkah oucjhc#####There's pubes too. Ruggero did us a great film in Atalntis Raiders, and Body Count was good too. Other than that this is your usual Italian mid eighties set in Miami and Philiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipines type stuff.

So, this is it: the finally of Ruggero Deodattos „Amazonia"- (better known as „Cannibal")-trilogy. Almost needless to say that "Cut and Run" in no way lives up to the standards of the infamous "Cannibal Holocaust" but then again, I dare say that no other movie has achieved that to date.Apart from some very gory scenes of carnage and mayhem (decapitations, gutting and a man being ripped into half), the location, Deodattos misogyny and condescending attitude towards the indigenous crew, "Cut and Run" and "Cannibal Holocaust" haven't got much in common. The later is a hardcore horror-film, containing what some have termed "animal snuff", yet actually had a deeper meaning, that criticized the 1970's Mondo-genre (exploitive and often partially faked pseudo-documentaries) and the Medias attitude toward what they considered primitive cultures."Cut and Run" is a more straight action-thriller about a surviving Jonestown leader Colonel Horn (Richard Lynch) who, with the help of an Indio tribe, rips off American cocaine smugglers in the Amazon and a couple of journalists (Lisa Blount and Leonard Mann) out to interview Horn and rescue the missing son of their producer (Willie Ames).What speaks for the film (apart from the rather heavy violence and gore, presuming this is your thing and the reason to come across "Cut and Run" in the first place) is a very hostile, depressing, even misanthropic atmosphere. This is another thing that "Cut and Run" and "Cannibal Holocaust" have in common. Lynch, as a mix between insane Reverend Jones and drug-peddling General Kurtz, plays the role he has been born to play; same goes for Michael Berryman, who plays a psychopathic killer-Indio; albeit, both only have a few minutes of screen-time. John Steiner is a sadistic, sneering drug-runner, nothing we didn't come to expect from Steiner there. The rest of the are bit-players who go through the motions, trying hard not to embarrass themselves or, like in the case of Karen Black, aren't given much to work with.If at all possible, Deodatto managed to make the local Indios look even more ape-like than in "Cannibal Holocaust". The grimace, rape and hop from tree to tree, one is instinctively reminded of the sub-humans in Ralph Bakshi pre-stone-age cartoon "Fire and Ice". Like a participant in "Cannibal Holocaust" said: "Deodatto killed apes, turtles and iguanas, but he treated the animals with more respect than he did the natives." Five points from ten – that's one for Lynch, one for Berryman, one for the atmosphere and two for the gore-content and special-effects.And, on a ps-note, watch out for a very young Eric La Salle ("Coming to America", here playing a jive-talking', purple fedora-wearing pimp which, we had presumed, had died out with 1970's blaxploitation film) and try not to watch out for Hugo Weaving in an extra-role – he's nowhere to be found in "Cut and Run"; his participation is an urban legend.

Originally intended for American horror-meister Wes Craven – which probably explains the presence of Michael Berryman from his THE HILLS HAVE EYES movies – this was eventually made by controversial Italian exploitation film-maker Deodato (with whom I have had the pleasure of a long chat around 03:00a.m. at the 2004 Venice Film Festival) as an unofficial last entry in his "Cannibal" trilogy! While I'm no fan of the previous two (in fact, I similarly awarded them ** apiece), it's easy to concede that this is the least of the bunch despite (or perhaps because of) the bigger budget and relatively decent cast accorded it. Apparently, the presence of so many English-speaking actors – Berryman, Richard Lynch, Karen Black, Lisa Blount, Willie Aames, Richard Bright, Eriq La Salle, Penny Brown – required the film to be shot in English in direct sound (a rarity for Italian productions) but I'm a stickler for seeing movies in their native language and thus I opted to watch the film in Italian (despite the presence of a cobbled-together English-language soundtrack on the Anchor Bay DVD which reportedly reverts to the Italian one for certain 'lost' sections)! Anyhow, it's virtually impossible not to think of Lynch's character – an American Colonel 'finding' himself in the Amazonian jungles at the head of a tribe of cut-throats – as having been modeled on Marlon Brando's incoherent turn in APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) but Deodato is much too interested in filming extreme gore (copious decapitations, one disembowelment and Steiner's character literally being split in two!) and his current girlfriend (Valentina Forte) in the nude to let such comparisons or pretensions bother him in the slightest. As usual with Euro-Cult fare, the music is a standout and ex-Goblin Claudio Simonetti's disco-tinged score here is no exception.

CUT AND RUN has one thing going for it: it moves. This movie may be a lot of things, but boring isn't one of them. It held my attention from beginning to end, end even shocked me a couple of times.A drug king (Richard Lynch) in South America and his partners have recruited a tribe of cannibals to aid them in their business, which is stealing other drug dealers' product and shipping it throughout the world as their own. A rich executive's son (Willie Aames) has fallen in with these people, and a female reporter (Lisa Blount) and her cameraman travel to the Amazon to investigate Lynch's business and hopefully locate Aames. Their transmissions are sent back for TV executive Karen Black to approve for network airing. Eric Lasalle (of ER) has a small part as a pimp who points Blount in the right direction.You'd think with a (somewhat) higher-scale cast than director Ruggero Deodatto had ever worked with before, he'd have managed to gain some level of respectability with this movie. However, with the exception of Lynch (who's great) and Lasalle, the performances are pretty terrible. Aames's performance is so hilariously awful, it's a miracle that he ever had any kind of career in show business. However, the great Michael Berryman plays a psychotic mute henchman with great enthusiasm.There's no on screen cannibalism to speak of, but there are a few moments of violence at which even jaded viewers may be taken aback. In one scene, a pair of women are raped, but first have their legs spread and nailed to the floor! In another, a man is caught in a trap, where his legs are pulled apart until he is ripped in half from the groin up. It's pretty disgusting.Overall, CUT AND RUN is a passable time-waster. It's more of an action movie than horror, but has its share of horrific moments. Other than the above mentioned scenes of violence, it's one of Deodatto's tamer movies. The fact that it started out as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST II is hard to believe.