The successful undercover agent Victor Cooper (Stephen Baldwin) is assigned for his ninth mission: to find how the loading of drug that is being brought to Miami. He suspects that the drug is coming through the air and joins a team of sky diving, under the leadership of Red Line (Tom Berenger),who is a fanatic and considered the athlete number one in this sport in the world. Due to his profile of winner, Vic gets involved with the group and he "disconnects" from his position of infiltrated agent, "connecting" with the team.

"Cutaway" is a film that gives the sensation of "dejavu", and the viewer has the sensation that had seen it before. Indeed, it is a collection of clichés, using the same storyline of "Point Break" but in the air, instead of in the sea; or "Donnie Brasco", just to mention two famous movies. However, "Cutaway" reasonably works and is watchable, mainly based on the great shootings in the air. Fans of Tom Berenger may enjoy and he has a good performance in the role of a charismatic leader, capable of any action to win in the sports he embraced. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Instinto Radical" ("Radical Instinct")

A U.S. Customs agent (Stephen Baldwin) goes undercover to join a skydiving team in Miami to bust a drug-smuggling ring. The squad is headed by a strong, but morally suspicious leader (Tom Berenger) and his somewhat sinister right-hand man (Dennis Rodman). Maxine Bahns, Ron Silver and Casper Van Dien are also on hand.

"Cutaway" (2000) is a skydiving crime thriller that cost $9 million and debuted on TV in the USA, but straight-to-video elsewhere. It features spectacular skydiving sequences supplemented by stock footage. Airplanes are ubiquitous, but only as means of transport.

If you want skydiving action "Cutaway" delivers the goods. It helps that Baldwin is a likable protagonist and Berenger has his typical edgy charisma. Bahns doesn't do much for me on the female front, but she's a'right. Stunningly statuesque Cat Stone has a bit part. While Van Dien's role is small, this movie upped my respect for him. He previously struck me as a pretty boy type, but he's totally kick axx here.

The film runs 1 hour, 44 minutes, and was shot in the Miami area, Florida (Miami-Dade County & Opa Locka),and Fort Bragg, NC.

GRADE: B-

A definite 10 out of 10 - if only we could have given it more! Myself and my friend have just watched Cutaway at the Drop Zone where we live, and as qualified skydivers, we found this to be possibly one of the most factually accurate representations of our sport ever made.

We were drawn into Vic's story from the beginning, finding absolutely no part of it to be false or unbelievable. Many a time, people have turned up at our drop zone to then be accosted by our most attractive female member of staff and taken on a tandem, with no training required. Further to this, we have taken many "woofos" under our wing, and taught them not only to skydive, but to perform disciplines such as Canopy Formations, freeflying and relative work at high standards in as little as 18 jumps.

We cannot emphasize enough how accurate this film is. Should anyone wish to become a skydiver, like Vic, it is certain that time in a wind tunnel will bring you to competition standard in a matter of weeks.

Myself and my friend are currently looking into the possibility of changing our names by D-Poll to Rip and Cord, though we are still trying to decide whether these names are worthy of our skydiving stature, or whether we should go for Vic and Red Line as our new names. We have already "cut it all away" - I have myself given up my career in medicine and left my husband and two young children to live at a drop zone, and my friend was a qualified lawyer before leaving his home on Kentucky to live at the DZ.

Anyhoo... AMAZING film, wonderfully acted and beautifully researched. Definitely one to watch, particularly if you wish to learn to skydive yourself.