Chuck Norris makes somewhat of a comeback after a few years of TV movies. Cleary his sporadic output in the last ten years is Chuck attempting to slowly bow out of the movie business, or at least the ass kicking movie business. Now Chuck is of course a pensioner now and although he's in excellent shape he is, how Gibson and Glover might say "too old for this s**t!" It's true, Chuck has made a living some 30 plus years, kicking people in the head, he is much loved for doing so. Now as far as action stars go, Chuck is one who is a bit of a personality void. He doesn't really have the charisma of an Arnold, and somehow doesn't have star power, he seems to much of a nice guy, everyman, while similarly he didn't get by on his looks either. Sure Chuck Norris was a great ass-kicker, but wooden he most certainly is. Chuck never really had much personality on screen, even wooden stars like Seagal and Van Damme did. Chuck had some roles where he was okay and he plays the quiet, calm hero well.
Anyway what all my anti Chuck relates to is the Cutter. At 65 he now is heavily doubled. The fights are also poorly thought out and filmed in order to make life easier to include Chuck in his master shots etc. There are several fights in this film, all of which are markedly similar. Chuck swings punches like John Wayne cowboy fighting, on his master shot, while the coverage shots are filming his double from behind doing the same dull punching slightly faster, and throwing in the odd kick. In his fights Chuck is generally filmed waste up, swinging lefts and rights and that's it. The thing is he is participating in a good length of these reasonably long fights, especially when you compare that Seagal regularly gets doubled and sometimes isn't even there for his master shots. So the fights in Cutter are incredibly, that's the truth. The rest of the action too is dull, from poorly conceived shootouts, to lame car chases. Daniel Bernhardt, still in his action man prime, is also wasted and of course when he fights Chuck, the simple fact that they are filmed to hide Chucks double and Chucks lack of speed, Bernhardt can't do much.
The Cutter is best described as boring. If compared to Seagal's recent films, it's at least competently made but the plot holds no interest, Norris seems bored, and only Bernhardt, not known for his acting ability, seems remotely interesting as a character and performer. it's really just a dinosaur of a film that is kind of bottom shelf from the 80's and has made it's way to the present day. Only the score from Elia Cmiral goes beyond the mundane in this, and he proves reliable for these sorts of films, however his work here is a long way from his excellent work in The Mechanik and a country mile behind his apex in Ronin. This is I'm afraid perhaps the dullest film I have seen in years. I like Chuck, and it's a shame this couldn't be a great swansong for the legend but as it goes I'll have to whip out a copy of Delta Force or Lone Wolf McQuade and watch in his prime. *
Anyway what all my anti Chuck relates to is the Cutter. At 65 he now is heavily doubled. The fights are also poorly thought out and filmed in order to make life easier to include Chuck in his master shots etc. There are several fights in this film, all of which are markedly similar. Chuck swings punches like John Wayne cowboy fighting, on his master shot, while the coverage shots are filming his double from behind doing the same dull punching slightly faster, and throwing in the odd kick. In his fights Chuck is generally filmed waste up, swinging lefts and rights and that's it. The thing is he is participating in a good length of these reasonably long fights, especially when you compare that Seagal regularly gets doubled and sometimes isn't even there for his master shots. So the fights in Cutter are incredibly, that's the truth. The rest of the action too is dull, from poorly conceived shootouts, to lame car chases. Daniel Bernhardt, still in his action man prime, is also wasted and of course when he fights Chuck, the simple fact that they are filmed to hide Chucks double and Chucks lack of speed, Bernhardt can't do much.
The Cutter is best described as boring. If compared to Seagal's recent films, it's at least competently made but the plot holds no interest, Norris seems bored, and only Bernhardt, not known for his acting ability, seems remotely interesting as a character and performer. it's really just a dinosaur of a film that is kind of bottom shelf from the 80's and has made it's way to the present day. Only the score from Elia Cmiral goes beyond the mundane in this, and he proves reliable for these sorts of films, however his work here is a long way from his excellent work in The Mechanik and a country mile behind his apex in Ronin. This is I'm afraid perhaps the dullest film I have seen in years. I like Chuck, and it's a shame this couldn't be a great swansong for the legend but as it goes I'll have to whip out a copy of Delta Force or Lone Wolf McQuade and watch in his prime. *