On Edge (2001)

I am starting out my addressing someones review in which they say:"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? "Its awesome that people love figure skating but what is HILARIOUS about this movie is that those scenarios and all the jokes are the real parts of figure skating that most fans don't know exist. As a competitive figure skater on the national level for over 12 years, this movie is hilarious and all other skaters agree. It pokes fun of the real things that we deal with. You think the fat jokes are cruel, well thats the real world of figure skating. Judges DO judge on that. And the reason so many olympians participated both acting and behind the scenes of this movie is because it pokes fun of the harsh realities of this sport. Kudos to you guys for making a skating movie thats actually accurate. Nothing bugs me more than when people hear that you are a figure skater and they say "i love the cutting edge" For us skaters, that movie is the worst thing ever and its so far from reality it annoying. Oh yeah, and by the way, kathy griffins character was hilarious because skaters always try to lie about their age to make themselves younger. I get how most people that are fans wouldn't get most of the jokes but for skaters this movie is a tribute. And the judges and higher ups are gross, thats why scotties character was so funny. LOL!!!

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.

I went to dollar tree today and paid a dollar for this film. After watching the half an hour I could sit through...I am tempted to go back tomorrow and depend I get my dollar back for having to sit through even 5 seconds of this movie. The film attempts to be a Christopher Guest clone on ice skating. One of the main reasons I bought it is that Jason Alexander was in it. I usually enjoy Jason Alexander's work. He usually has a great energy to him. Here it feels like he knows the movie is bad, so he just decided to not even try. He's half-assed in his role, and he is very lazy. As I mentioned earlier, I was only able to watch a half an hour of it. I am fully aware I cannot fully embrace a movie's terribleness if I did not see the whole thing, but I could not take it anymore. I hated this movie. Hated, hated, hated it. Tell you what, go to the dollar tree or amazon or ebay and get a cheap copy of this film, and prove to me you sat through the whole thing, and I will give you a cash amount. If you do not want to do that little project, do not spend a cent, and I mean not a cent, not even half a cent, not even 1/4 a cent on this god-awful film.

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.