Cut (2000)

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Blistering performances.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A killer begins to stalk the actors of a low budget horror film, killing them off one by one.Molly Ringwald appears as a diva actress, Kylie Minogue is also here (not sure where exactly in her career this falls). And we have a very cool killer mask. What else? The movie is actually fairly decent. Not great, not one that is going to become a classic, but a decent take on the slasher genre and a film that successfully rides the coattails of "Scream". The idea of a cursed film that needs to be finished is nice -- maybe not completely original, but a good combination with the slasher aspects.I simply have no idea what more to say. The film is not a deep one -- college kids in a big house and they are getting killed. It looks slick, maybe a little bit cheaply made but not bad. Disposable, but worth a peek for horror aficionados.

I saw this movie last night on Fearnet.com and although it was made with more style than your run-of-the-mill, low-budget horror movie, it was still pretty awful. You know its not a good sign when the first five minutes, which highlight the cheesy movie being made within this movie, are actually better than the rest of the film. It's like once the real film started the fun died.The aesthetics of the opening scene work well and the result is a terrific parody of mad slasher movies. The framing of the opening shots are so overwhelmingly yellow and Molly Ringwald's acting is so over-the-top that the whole sequence is very funny on par with the "Scream" movies. Unfortunately, the reminder of the movie did not have a fraction of inspiration or style.My big complaint about this movie is that the premise of the murders are set up to make you think that one of the young cast members is the killer. So as the movie progresses, you're trying to deduce who it is (which can be fun). Not that I would dream of revealing the outcome, but suffice it to say that the explanation of who the killer is - in a word - sucks! And what should be an exciting climax, is quite dull.I only have two requests of a movie in order to be entertained and that is that they (a) keep my attention and (b) arouse some emotion. Aside from boredom, the only emotion I felt while watching this movie was sympathy for Molly Ringwald. Her talents are just plain wasted here. Hopefully being in this movie hasn't discouraged her from ever going back to Austraila:(

A student filmmaker enlists a B-grade actress (a delectably diva-ish MOLLY RINGWALD!) to complete the horror film that her mother (a dreadfully dull Kylie Minogue!) tried to make 12 years ago. It's a curious plot choice to say the least, as any Aussie horror fan knows that the genre is sadly lacking in women directors. The film has a curse on it, because Molly had to kill some psycho murderer on the original set. But she's back, because she needs the exposure. Unfortunately, the curse is still there and people start dying on the "set." Cut is an Aussie attempt at the modern "slasher," but unfortunately it doesn't bring anything new or exciting to the table. In fact, it rips half of Wes Craven's 90s filmography. Lots of film-world name-dropping a la "Scream" (except it's Aussie name-dropping--Jane Campion...see how this isn't as funny) and lots of "is this real or is this a movie" a la "New Nightmare." The editing is bad, the music is annoying, the effects are laughable, almost everything is bad about this. Fortunately, the film can have a sense of humor: at one point, a well-dressed girl in the movie crew says to the owner of the house they are filming at: "Don't worry, we'll treat your house as if it were our own," to which he responds, "that doesn't mean anything to me, you look like you live in a dump!" Ha! And Molly's ridiculous one-liners were enough to not regret renting this one. "You got any diet coke in here?" (as she rides in the film professor's car) and "Does anyone know where I can buy any tofu?" (the first thing she mutters on the set) and "Where the hell is my agent?" (oh wait, that's what I was thinking for her.)

Twelve years ago, production stopped on the slasher flick "Hot Blooded" since almost everyone on the set started dying. Now, a couple of film students have decided to finish the film, despite the fact that there's a rumor that the film is cursed. Well, they're about to find out that some curses are real.When Scream was released, every country seemed to want to cash in on its success, even Australia. The concept, which today has been done to death (a slasher film within a slasher film) was at the time relatively cool and original. This movie was released right before Urban Legends: Final Cut and Scream 3 (well not in the US but in Australia) so it felt like the first movie with this concept. When Urban Legends 2 was released, most of us had all ready grown sick of the concept and since the movie wasn't even good, the movie flopped disastrously. Now, Cut is not the best slasher flick ever, and nor does it try to be. It knows that it's a rip-off, and they even cast a girl who looks like a blonde version of Neve Campbell in the starring role. But instead of trying to add some new and original twists to the story, they've decided to rip-off some 80s slasher flicks like "Nightmare on Elm Street" as well and surprisingly enough, this actually works. The killer is very creepy and that mask is just killer! And instead of trying to scare the audience to death, they've created a very good and creepy atmosphere which keeps us in suspense through most of the movie. There are a couple of plot holes in the movie though that I wasn't able to fully ignore, the ending being the biggest plot hole in the movie. Spoiler ahead; I mean, they burnt the only copy of the movie so where the hell did they find the print that they show in the final scene? It makes no sense I tell you. End of spoilers. All in all, Cut is a pretty creepy slasher flick with a silly story but I consider this to be one of the better Scream rip-offs that never made it big. I'm surprised that this one never got a sequel, but I guess it simply came out too late. Suspenseful Australian slasher flick with very few scares. Cut is still a pretty neat slasher movie and I will have to recommend this one even though I consider the story to be quite silly since it's completely ludicrous.