The Cutting Edge [VHS]

You'll find other far more insightful reviews out there for this movie, but this is one I truly enjoyed, start to finish. There were things that bothered me (after Doug refuses to have sex with Kate because she's drunk, but then beds the skating competitor's partner, when he obviously has strong feelings for Kate, it leaves one to wonder about his morals!), but overall, it's about two driven desperate competitors who find each other (both are quite egocentric), overcome their differences in background to form an amazing team. The fact that that partnership leads to romance is icing on the cake. It kept me engaged to the very end. And the ending was satisfying on more than one level.

To start I found little objectionable with any of the four. All 4 deal mostly with legal age adults who still have a lot of maturation left to acquire; hence a number of strongly emotional scenes are depicted. Obviously there are a lot of pairs figure skating scenes that show the serious athleticism that only people in that age bracket are capable of doing. Each of the 4 movies has essentially the same plot with widely differing responses from the specific people involved. #1 is perhaps the best production in terms of the overall pace of the film. The following three are not far behind. As far as the scripts are concerned perhaps #3 is the one at the bottom of the list. I think that 2 and 4 are tied for first. The script for #4 produced the nicest couple; the script for #2 produced the most fascinating character: Jaque. As for the acting: most of it was good. I don't think that any of the more major roles were badly done. In fact, most of the subordinate roles were also well done. However, for acting I have to give 5 stars to Christie Romano for her starring role in #2. As I mentioned above, the script gave her role the of Jaque and Christie took it and made a thing of beauty of it. Christie has a very mobile face and she was given authority to use it to wonderful effect. That made #2 my slight favorite of the four. In a close second was the best love story of #4. One other aspect: in #3 and #4 the mother of the heroine is one of the nicest portrayals of motherhood at its best I have seen. To sum up there are good things in all four and I recommend them. If you have seen none of them I urge you to watch them in order as characters do sometimes pass from one episode to the next.

This movie is a fairly conventional romcom in some ways. But romcoms follow rather similar plots and can't be faulted for that. What it does bring out is how much sacrifice is required to be a great skater. The final scene involves months of training full of accidents which entail being splattered breast first on the ice . It is no easy task for Douglas by the way; it is like fighting with a halberd which has razor blades tied to the grip that was tossed to you at the speed of an arrow before you start fighting. The slingshot they did required a lot of confidence and mutual trust, and it also required practically masochistic training. After that you realize that Douglas's surprise that Kate doesn't enjoy skating is unwittingly insensitive: whatever she had been before, she had had to go through years of that and skating was not fun for her, it was war. But she was not going to let mere ice defeat her.Doug too was proud, of his success in a brutal sport that resembled nothing so much as an old style tournament (a la outrance too and not just a joust). Fighting for victory, honor, and from the looks of it, oxygen were no strangers to him. He is understandably skeptical about taking up skating because it looks like an effeminate sport. Which is unsurprising, as the beauty is what the audience sees. The brutality comes in the training.To it's credit, the film is not just a cliche "Girl Power" although Kate is definitely a powerful girl, more especially in her will than in her body which looks far more fragile than it is. When challenged by Doug to match him in hockey she agrees, and of course is humiliated. That is the sport he trained at not her.This is not just a movie about romance but one about courage and pride. Both characters are proud which is why their wills clash. And courage is impressive. One might shake one's head at spending it on other's entertainment but one cannot but appreciate it.

A clever script with a credible premise. Lively pacing and well drawn characters, portrayed by great actors who've been given intelligent dialogue and witty repartee. Thematic music, nice skating and most the usual Hollywood formulas, which all work well. It adds up to a very smart entertaining film that keeps you engaged long enough to see past the protagonists' flaws: I defy any viewer not to be rooting for our couple by half way. It is well done to take such deeply unsympathetic characters at first and build them into heroes with whom we can really identify.RECOMMENDED

Watched this film years ago. For many years wanted always to wanted to see it again. Arrived on time, great distributer, Cool film. only prob was that because it's so old the quality was rubbish. watchable, but not wonderful. Still, a film i wanted to see again, and i did. so . . . great.

One of my fave movies of all time. Finally added it to my 80s collection and couldn’t be happier.

Bit of nostalgia in buying this but I needed it in my life. And db Sweeney is gorgeous and has his shirt off in quite a few scenes!

enjoyable from beginning to end