Cut And Run

Director Ruggero Deodato, whose CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST proved he was no slave to good taste, extended his wallow in gore and sleaze with this violent action picture set in the Amazon. Decapitations, rape, degradation, exploitation of Jonestown victims — it’s all here, folks, and the hell of it is that the action is so fast-paced that CUT AND RUN is a lot of fun if you aren’t squeamish about it. Amazingly, Deodato convinced a name cast of American actors to star in CUT AND RUN, and New World gave it a theatrical release in 1986.

American reporters Lisa Blount (just four years after AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN) and Leonard Mann (NIGHT SCHOOL) head to South America on a double mission: investigate a series of grisly drug-related Miami murders and find Willie Aames (EIGHT IS ENOUGH), the missing son of their editor Richard Bright (THE GODFATHER). The key to both goals is Richard Lynch (THE SEVEN-UPS), a Jonestown survivor who set himself up with an army of natives and right-hand man Michael Berryman (THE HILLS HAVE EYES) to operate his own drug operation.

Karen Black (AIRPORT 1975) pops up as Blount’s boss, ER’s Eriq LaSalle is a pimp in a purple hat, Gabriele Tinti from the Emanuelle movies is a pilot, Eurotrash mainstay John Steiner (CALIGULA) receives the goriest death, and Deodato’s gorgeous teenage girlfriend Valentina Forte (BLASTFIGHTER) provides some of the film’s nudity.

The director’s zeal for brutality is so pronounced that he can’t help but kill some people twice, like when Berryman jams a long needle through a guy’s neck and then slices open his belly for a juicy shot of entrails drooping out or the guy hanging from a wooden door with a machete through his chest who gets a post-mortem machine-gun dessert from Steiner. You gotta love the enthusiasm. I’m guessing New World made no effort to clear Aames’ hilarious Mickey Mouse tank top with Disney.