Earlier this year, as Cutter and Bone, it was generally panned and was yanked by United Artists before most of the country got to see it. Now it has been rereleased with a supposedly less gruesome title (the old one did suggest a surgical training film). While the movie wasn't so worthless it deserved such short shrift in its first incarnation, it isn't a born-again classic, either. Ivan Passer, a Czech who previously directed five obscure features in this country, fails to make the story, which is about some quirky Southern Californians caught up in a murder, either coherent or suspenseful. John (Heart Beat) Heard, however, delivers a performance that is at once witty and moving as Cutter, a crippled, half-blind, alcoholic Vietnam vet. Lisa Eichhorn, as Cutter's long-suffering wife, and Jeff Bridges, as a sometime gigolo named Bone, are both appealing, too. (R)
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