The Cutter (2005)

Director:

William Tannen

Writer (WGA):

Bruce Haskett (written by)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The past holds the key!

Plot:

A detective comes to the aid of an aged diamond cutter. |

Plot Keywords:

Diamond Cutter | Diamond | DVD | Kidnapping | Ransom

Cast

Chuck Norris	...	John Shepherd
Joanna Pacula	...	Elizabeth Teller
Daniel Bernhardt	...	Dirk
Bernie Kopell	...	Issac Teller
Todd Jensen	...	Parks
Marshall R. Teague	...	Moore
Tracy Scoggins	...	Alena
Curt Lowens	...	Col. Speerman
Deron McBee	...	Alex / Repairman
Dean Cochran	...	Eddie
Mark Ivanir	...	Doctor Joseph
Víctor Quintero	...	Man 1
Rick Avery	...	Man 2
Aaron Norris	...	Tony Maylam
Mickey Mank	...	Old Woman

MPAA:

Rated R for violence.

Runtime:

USA:92 min | Australia:88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

USA:R | Australia:MA | UK:18 | New Zealand:R16 | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

Gonzaga University - 502 E. Boone Avenue, Spokane, Washington, USA

Company:

Millennium Films

Trivia:

This project took over 10 years to get produced. It had been optioned by three studios and had been re-written at least five times to cater to the whims of either a studio or a star. Originally set in New York, it was later changed to Los Angeles then to Prague and finally Spokane, Washington. The final "change" was the elimination of any and all references to Israel and the removal of the Hasidim from the script of a movie about diamonds and centered in the diamond district of a major American city. The producer (an Israeli) said he could not sell the film to "certain territories" if these elements remained in the film.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the Windows installed computer browses through some suspects, the computer gives an errormsg and the agent behind the computer says that it's a bad thing when this happens because there are secrets present about that specific suspect that nobody may look into. If you look at the message you see a normal Windows Page Fault errormsg obviously caused by the ATI videodriver (ATI2xxx.drv).

Satisfying action film

A recent (not old) Norris film surprises with action, fights, car chases, shootouts, more fights. An aging jeweler is kidnapped by his holocaust jailer to cut rare diamonds dug up from the ephod (breastplate) of Aaron (old testament). The man's niece hires PI Norris to find him.

Norris can't act, and his lines are delivered perfunctorily. Yet I found this actually endearing, because it reminds us that Norris is in fact a real person, not coming from Hollywood (but from the martial arts world), which makes him that much more heroic, speaking as how we would want a hero to speak. In other words, it's more important Chuck says the right thing, than how he says it. It operates almost like nationalistic propaganda, but an endearing one of celebrating cultural iconography.

The old jeweler was outstanding, played by Bernie Koppell. The movie even included poignant "flashbacks" to Auschwitz, adding even more interest to the already engaging story. The young villain was too slick, but he grew on me after a while and he was a joy to watch (martial arts expert Daniel Burnhardt). It's amusing that the main female lead, Joanna Pacula, is not shown anywhere on the DVD jacket, but instead Tracy Scoggins is, who played a minor role as a police officer! They are both gorgeous, though.

6 points for being a solid actioner.