Cutaway Reviews

Skydiving stunts highlight this mundane action movie, whose plot (which strongly recalls that of POINT BREAK) is as earthbound as its aerial sequences are heavenly. DEA agent Cooper (Stephen Baldwin) is known as a risk-taker, and draws assignments from which others shy away. After his superior, Mr. Margate (Ron Silver), gets outsmarted by drug smugglers at Miami International Airport, Cooper comes up with a theory about how the dealers avoid detection: Maybe Castillo crime family pays skydivers to parachute from planes with the drugs prior to landing at the main airport. Cooper gets a crash course in skydiving from Army expert Delmira (Casper van Dien), then goes undercover and joins a clique of free-fallers trained by professional champ Redline (Tom Berenger). Cooper learns that a petty crook named Turbo (Dennis Rodman) heads Redline's close-knit crew and campaigns to join the free-fallers' inner circle, which will give him access to the drug-pushing kingpins. Along the way, Cooper proves a worthy addition to the Air Miami team; he even considers pulling a "cutaway," dropping out of his professional life to become a full-time member of the synchronized squad. Suspicious of Cooper's quick rise through the ranks, Turbo vows to disgrace him; he's later killed trying to outdo Cooper. Because Redline now needs a partner, he takes Cooper into his confidence about Air Miami's finances — he and Redline and Turbo were dropping drugs for Castillos to keep the team solvent. As an annual free-fall competition approaches, Cooper is in a quandary: How can he do his duty without betraying a man he admires and letting down the teammates he loves? The film's real calling card isn't its utility script — the plot grinds to a halt every time the guys jump out of a plane — but the wild blue yonder stunts are breathtaking, if overworked.