Sapo

Computer hacking, biomedical research and the venality of pharmaceutical corporations are the set-up for a high-tech thriller that never fulfills its potential. Courier Jetta Santiago is en route to deliver a package when she is assaulted on a highway outside of Detroit. Realizing her package is anything but routine, she teams up with computer hacker Henry Beaufort, who happened to be driving by when she was attacked. Their run for cover takes them deep into the Amazonian rain forest in Peru to a mysterious experimental research lab. Assorted villains make their entrances, and the body count mounts steadily. Such potentially interesting topics as medical research and the search for miracle drugs are obliterated by arch characterization, gee-whiz dialogue and the distinct impression that all of this has happened many times before on TV. Lacking unique characters or distinctive writing, Beatty delivers merely hectic, uncontrolled motion. (Sept.)