Synopsis:

Stephen Baldwin plays Vic Cooper. An undercover Customs Agent that gets lost in his cover and ends up believing the hype more than the truth. When drug smugglers begin using parachutists for their drop men, Customs gets involved. Vic has to learn to skydive and compete with a crack team of divers in an attempt to one win the national competition and two, uncover the smugglers in this operation. Immediately one of the divers looks suspicious-Turbo (Dennis Rodman). The group's leader "Redline" (Tom Berenger) takes an instant liking to Cooper and pushes him too the limits in an attempt to get the very best out of him and along the way, he introduces him to their "other source of income". However, the curiosity of this band of divers never explores how Cooper so quickly advances in both technique and speed. Instead they take him under their collective wings and prep for the coming competition. Cooper again gets lost in the haze and finds he like his "new" life more than that of his old life. Things get complicated and he's got to make a choice. Stay with the Government and go back to his old life or "Cutaway" and join with his newfound friends in a lifetime spent in skydiving competition.

Audio/Video:

The audio is DD 2.0, which merely recreates the front/center experience in the rears as well. Fairly loud and engaging, the audio never really gets to the point where you are ducking and checking out your shoulders as the sounds suggest you should. Two commentary tracks are included. One with Baldwin and Maxine Bahms and one with the director Guy Manos. Baldwin's commentary is interesting and surprisingly full of a lot of decent behind the scenes info. However, there are a great many lagging parts where there is total silence. Director Manos's track on the other hand is rich with all kinds of information. A Champion skydiver himself, Manos has directed or choreographed all of the major skydive sequences in big time major filmmaking. His level of expertise is pretty awesome and he lends credibility to what's going on onscreen and in turn identifies actual jumps versus staged shots. Surprisingly enough, Baldwin and Berenger did their own jumps and look pretty good up there! People got hurt in this picture. Namely Ron Silver and Stephen Baldwin. Silver sprained the heck out of his ankle a la Kurt Russell in Soldier and Baldwin's back got quite a bruising in a scene with Rodman slamming him against the back of a school bus. Great inside info and only available in these great commentary tracks!

The video is fairly clean and bright, it's not up to Artisan's usual top-notch presentations but it is a good transfer. There was a fair amount of pixelation that occurred in chapters 4 and 7 but other than that I didn't notice any other transfer errors.

Extras:

In addition to the commentary tracks, a trailer is included as well as a photo gallery and some cast and crew information.

Overall:

Cutaway is not that bad of a film. Rodman was actually fairly believable in his small role and Berenger was totally there. Baldwin however seemed drugged throughout the film. His performance was not the best. I guess in a picture like this you're probably not looking for stellar performances or Oscar caliber dialogue. You are probably looking for some incredible shots and even more incredible aerial acrobatics. If that's what you've come for, you'll get it in spades! The photography is intense and the stunts are jaw dropping! For some really great footage of BASE-jumping and overall skydiving maneuvers, this film is a treasure trove. For storyline and believability, it's not gonna happen. In all, I'd say it's worth a rental at least for those action sequences. Rental