On Edge

This film could have been better if they just stopped trying so hard.

While this film had its moments, the acting was of poor quality and it just seemed incredibly forced and not believable at all. For a 'mockumentary' to work you have to be able to believe that these are real people you're watching, and not actors. On Edge tries, and falls flat.

If you want to see a 'mockumentary' that works see This is Spinal Tap (not 'Spinal Tap on Ice'....) or any one of Christopher Guest's delightful and hilarious films (Waiting for Gufman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind).

Whoever wrote the positive comment on this movie had to be working for the production company. This movie was so mean spirited, stupid, and unfunny. How many more fat jokes could they make? What was up with the gross character played by Scott Hamilton? He should be ashamed for making this movie. How could Kristi and Tai want to be associated with this disaster? What happened to Jason Alexander's acting skills? Did he leave them all on the set of Seinfeld?

It didn't gently and affectionately poke fun at the sport, like Bring it On did for competitive cheerleading. It consistently stressed that all skaters are bulimic psychopaths, all the mothers are desperate middle aged hags trying to regain their lost youth, and all the judges are biased snobs whose scores can be bought with sexual favors. I was waiting for the gay jokes to come out but with no male skaters I guess the writers just couldn't figure out how work them in.

I am not against dumb but funny movies, but this movie was just depressing. Don't waste your time.

I like mockumentaries and thought this one had potential as the ice skating world is ripe for picking, but it was not to be. "On Edge" must've looked good on paper as there are lots of good set-ups for comedic moments but the execution is awful. The best films in this type of film (Think "Best in Show" or "Incident at Loch Ness" for two wildly different but highly effective mockumentaries) seem to know that the comedy works best when the on screen characters don't "try" to be funny. "On Edge" features so much self conscious mugging for the camera that I'd bet it was fun to be on the set at the time of filming but for those of us in the audience it's very hard to sit through. It's sort of like visiting family and having the children constantly tug at your sleeve to watch them perform their ballet twirling or magic acts. That works fine on a family level but not on a feature film level. It's really a shame too because the movie has a charming blueprint. It focuses on a number of young ice skaters prepping for the regional competition. There's the fat girl, the twins, the klutz, the biker chick, and the one for whom ice skating isn't her real dream but her stage mother won't let her stop skating because she's a natural. Jason Alexander is sort of an everyman, playing Zamboni Phil, and commenting sagely on the different girls and their managers. He must've really needed a paycheck to appear in this turkey. I'd like to see this movie remade by Christopher Guest and company. They could do it proud.

I love figure skating. It's my favorite Olympic sport and Lord knows it has it's eccentric, bizarre side which is why it was ripe for a mock documentary like this. However, director Slovin (who also co-wrote the screenplay) is no Christopher Guest. What Guest did to community theater (Waiting for Guffman), dog shows (Best in Show), and country music (A Mighty Wind) is inspired lunacy. One can only wish that he'd taken on this subject as well. Slovin is simply not up to the task. Not by a long shot!

The over-the-top writing is only intermittently funny. The direction is slow and clunky! A lot of the jokes are forced. Most of it is downright stupid. The reason Guest succeeds in his mockumentaries is because he takes the original subject matter very seriously. His players and situations are very true to life. That's what makes them funny. The characters in "On Edge" are not so skillfully veiled tropes of real people like Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan and Michelle Kwan. They are not conceived properly and in the end simply become annoying and unreal. It doesn't help that the three female leads cannot do anything with the material. The idea of an ebullient, overweight skater may work for a five minute Saturday Night Live skit, but over the course of 90 minutes it strains the reality of a real or fake documentary. There aren't any people like this. A 250 pound skater could never do a triple jump. So instead of poking fun at the real world of skating, Slovin invents fantasies to satirize, weakening the entire movie as a result. The movie actually reminded me of another mockumentary "Drop Dead Gorgeous" about a regional beauty queen contest. The difference is that in that movie the girls competing are totally believable. It's hilarious! The female figure skaters in "On Edge" are not.

Jason Alexander gives one of the worst performances of his career. He is embarrassingly dull. He adds little to the movie. And why would a documentary film maker spend so much time with a Zamboni driver in the first place! He should have been smart and passed on the movie. Chris Hogan as the documentary film maker is square in delivery and hopelessly miscast. You don't believe he's a film maker at all! It would have been better to have the character an unseen person behind the scenes. John Glover has a few funny moments as an over the hill Russian skater but the barely acceptable accent wears out its welcome fast. And ice skating legend Scott Hamilton delivers a horrid, unfunny, overly broad, embarrassing performance as a prissy, chain smoking, yellow toothed, bad hair day skating judge. You wonder what he got paid to debase the sport this badly. Adding insult to injury, other skating legends like Kristi Yamaguchi, Robin Cousins, Peter Caruthers, Randy Gardner and Ty Babilonia appear as competition judges. Did none of them realize how bad this movie was.

Well, the studio did. They sent it right to video. And if you see it in the video store, spare yourself. If you must have a figure skating movie, try "The Cutting Edge"! That at least honors the sport!

Okay this is a spoof about documentary style movies about figure skating in Southern California. It's not supposed to be great but it has a great cast. I love Wendie Malick as the single mother obsessed with her daughter, Veda, who has a secret passion for cooking and would rather be in the kitchen than a skater. She has a Tonya Harding type J.C. Cain who would love to be the queen of the ice Capades and shows. She comes from a trailer park community. The third contestant is played by Marisa Janet Winokur (she won a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for Hairspray). She plays Wendy, a girl from a wholesome supportive family and coached by her mother. She finally gets her dream coach after his client is eliminated. You see a lot of familiar faces like Jason Alexander as Zamboni Phil, Chris Hogan as the Professor, Kathy Griffin as Kathy Katz among others. I don't take this film seriously. Oh Scott Hamilton, Peter Carruthers, Kristi Yamaguchi show that they can poke fun at their sport.