The Cutting Edge: Going for the Gold

Once upon time, when the earth was green, an obscure and unambitious little young adult romcom was produced in Canada. The name of the film was The Cutting Edge. To the great surprise of everyone both in front of, and behind, the camera, the film was magical, a genuine phenom, and became (and still is!) a cult classic. If you have not seen it, stop reading this and go find a copy. NOW.

(Yes, yes, I know, before the email starts, the official IMDb profile says that CE1 was a US production but if you read the fine print, you will see that all filming was done in and around Toronto. Which means that most of the production staff were Canadian. Which makes this a first-generation Canadian film. Understand this -- there is a reason that most first-gen Canadian films have never been seen or heard of again. To be able to say that CE1 actually became a classic is ... extraordinary.) OK, back to CE2, a direct to video production. The good news is the performance of Christy Carlson Romano. It is never less than good and often more than great. It literally sustains the weak script (in many places a copy of CE1) and forgettable performances from the rest of the cast. Not their fault though. Looks like it was produced on a shoestring.

I read the IMDb reviews which tout that this film is good enough to stand on its own. Ugh! Listen, if not for the success of CE1, which started the franchise, this production would never have happened. At the end of the day, THAT is the acid test.

The featured comment that gives an "A+++ for good clean fun" to this film is written like a studio authored press blurb. I'm a little suspicious of the author as I just saw the DVD and I can say that this film competes with "Highlander II: The Quickening" as the worst sequel ever. I was a fan of Christy Romano until this movie. Mostly because she is hot, but also because she acts with so much energy. She had the acting breadth of a soap actress in this film. She projected three emotions; bemused, upset and completely blank, and used them over and over again, sometimes inappropriately. That would be fine for a half an hour TV show, but it was a snore here. It was like she took the Ren Stevens character from "Even Stevens", renamed her Jackie and threw her into this film. Ross Thomas did a good job of playing a "dude" character, but every non-skating scene between the two was dragged down by Ms. Romano's Jackie. As to the film itself, it played like an episode of "Baywatch" complete with montages of unrelated people and things used to transition to the next scene and pop songs in the background that drown out the actors dialog. It's "Baywatch" on ice. What a shame.

Jackie Dorsey (Christy Carlson Romano) is the daughter of Olympic skaters Kate Mosley and Doug Dorsey (from the first Cutting Edge film). She has been a singles skater, and a fine one but, during a competition, she falls hard and breaks a leg. Her parents are very concerned but doctors say the leg will heal and Jackie is determined to skate again. However, the young, very lovely ice princess decides to become a pairs skater, thinking that she can rely on the support of a partner, should her leg give her trouble. While continuing the healing process on a California beach, Jackie meets Alex (Ross Thomas), a hotshot surfer and line skater. A romance begins but he doesn't know who she is and she doesn't know that he might already have a girlfriend. When these revelations come to light, Jackie heads back to Connecticut, in a huff. Nevertheless, Alex begins skating lessons in a quest to become Jackie's new partner. Amazingly, he is a natural and, although Jackie is very reluctant, at first, they become a winning duo. Yet, complications are still present, for Alex and Jackie run hot and cold, on and off the ice, and Alex's old girlfriend re-enters the picture right before the Olympics. How will this mixed-up twosome fare in the most important competition of their lives? This is a nice film for fans of the first movie and of romantic drama in general. In fact, it echoes the original flick on many occasion, from Jackie's prima donna attitude, like her mother, Kate's, to Alex's wandering eye for the female sex, just like Jackie's dad, Doug Dorsey. Then, too, if the two main actors, Romano and Thomas, are not quite on par with Moira Kelly and D.B. Sweeney, of the first film, they are attractive and talented in their own ways. Naturally, the scale of the movie is not as grand, either in costuming, sets, or production but it is certainly adequate. As for the skating scenes, they are very nice indeed. A number of real life skating stars, including Oksana Baiul, make cameos so, dear viewer, keep a watch out. There are, perhaps, some viewers who may object to the fast-and-loose morals of Alex, with good reason. Therefore, parents might want to watch and discuss the film with their children before a joint viewing. But, really, this is quite a nice movie for lovers of skating and/or romance. Although it may not be a "gold medal" flick, it is certainly able to happily entertain its target audience.

This movie tries too hard to capitalize on the original, yet it seems as though the producer/directors didn't really see it. The interplay between the leading characters seems contrived, not at all as thoroughly charged and enjoyably funny as that from Doug and Kate in the first movie. Where there are clear parallels between the two, they come off flat. Where it really suggests to me that the producers didn't even study the magic of the first movie, is the casting of the new Kate and Doug. Who saw any of Moira Kelly's charm and fire in Stepfanie Kramer's character. In a word, she was wimpish. And does anyone see Scott Thompson Baker getting on the ice with DB Sweeney. And together they were just blah. Sequels always pale in comparison to the original, but this film could have been cute with a better script, and the two new characters contrasted with more colorful versions of Kate and Doug. A big disappointment!!

I really wanted to like this movie. The original was so good. I saw this one on broadcast TV. It might have been TV editing that screwed it up but there are still too many flaws. It simply doesn't measure up to the original story. It lacks the spark and pizazz of the original. Contrary to what the previous critic said, if you are going to use the same title and the same character names in this sequel, you have to invite comparison. The movie just stumbled along right until the end. There was some very nice skating but even that was kind of pieced together. I felt that every time they changed angles they were simply cutting out another fall. (Sorry, just the way it looked to me). In the end I had to ask myself why I had wasted my time.