leychica I had high hopes for this film because of its stellar cast – Jason Alexander, Marissa Winkour, Kathy Griffin, A.J. Langer, and Wendie Mallick all have such strong comedy chops, I figured any movie with these actors HAD to be good. Right? Alas, this was so bad it was unwatchable.There have been many references to Christopher Guest's mockumentaries in these comments, and I agree that this movie is a long, long way from being in the same league as Guest's. The main difference is that Guest's films genuinely love and respect their subject matters, even while deprecating them. The writers of this film apparently hate figure skaters, and as a result, the "jokes" are offensive, mean-spirited, and sexist, as opposed to being light, good-natured fun. Nearly EVERY scene contains a fat joke at Winkour's expense. The Veda character is stalked and nearly raped in a parking lot by two idiot male groupies, and this is passed off as hilarity. Bulimia and drug use are also given the comedy treatment, and every unfunny, poorly-written gag is repeated several times.What a waste of talent! The three lead characters (Winkour, Swatek, and Langer) cannot do anything with the material. Kathy Griffin's role was far too short. Jason Alexander seems embarrassed to be in the movie, as if he signed on and then couldn't take it back. The narrator is square, boring, lacks timing, and adds nothing to the mockumentary nature of the story.Worst of all, the movie is tragically low-budget, and nowhere is this more evidence than in the film's music. Whoever wrote the music was about 20 years behind the times, apparently scoring every scene with AWFUL 80s keyboard pop. Obviously, I can't fault a movie for not having lots of money thrown at it, but the filmmakers didn't even TRY to make this film sound professional. One character is obsessed with Madonna, yet the music she is listening to clearly is NOT Madonna's – it is a very cheap, and not at all realistic, imitation of "Get into the Groove." Similarly, another skater later ostensibly skates to the Titanic theme music, yet the "music" is clearly a bad imitation of the Titanic score, not the real thing. The filmmakers insult the audience's intelligence with this tripe, and make this movie feel like a cheap 80s film instead of one made in 2001.I am only giving this film 4 stars because of the cast. The writing deserves 0 stars.

philip-1 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!

TimmyGUNZ Being a huge fan of mockumentaries, I liked the premise of "On Edge." Figure Skating is a great opportunity to create something very funny and original.That being said, this movie was so bad it was unwatchable. One of the big reasons I wanted to see this movie in the first place was because of the inclusion of Jason Alexander in the cast, but his performance in this film is painfully bad. I couldn't tell if it was because of over-acting or under-acting. Nothing about this movie seemed to flow. The jokes, if you even want to call them that, were so far away from funny that I found myself cringing at times. By calling this a mockumentary, "On Edge" taints what is usually a funny genre. "The Spinal Tap of Figure Skating" this movie is not.If you want to see how Mockumentaries are supposed to be done, then rent "Spinal Tap," "Best In Show," "A Mighty Wind," etc. Save yourself the $3.50 and do not rent "On Edge."

httpmom O.K. I never would have know about this movie had it not been for a friend. She knew I would like it and I really did. Maybe you have to have a daughter involved in a competitive sport like figure skating or horseback riding to see the humor of it all but to me the whole movie was brilliantly funny. Satire on a shoe string! Reminiscent of Christopher Guest (Best in Show 2000, Waiting for Guffman 1996 ), who I totally admire...it had my full attention. It's basically a pseudo-documentary drama-soap opera-comedy about young Southern California girls competing at a local then regional championship in figure skating. There's a remarkable cast involved. Jason Alexander was highly convincing as a Ice Surface Engineer...i.e. Zamboni driver who has the scoop on all the poop. Then we have a really hammy Scott Hamilton playing a psycho skating judge who rants about the chaste and lofty ideals at the heart of the sport. God, he's so awful to look at (yellow teeth, thrift store clothing) that it's almost painful to watch him. His voice is drippingly saccharine all the while spewing complete nonsense. If nothing else he really nailed the gay figure skating persona in this judge. You just gotta love him.There are some other well known figure skating personalities involved also...Tai Babilonia, Peter Caruthers, Steven Cousins, Randy Gardner, and Kristi Yamaguchi all play the part of the five regional judges. We all know judges can be arbitrary and vindictive not to mention down right blind, so it must have been a hoot for this group of professionals to get some deserved revenge however slight, by acting like their one time nemesis's. All three lead rolls were perfectly cast and it would seem they must have had a lot of fun both on and off set. A.J. Langer as J.C.Cain, who raises Cain as a trailer trash Tonya Harding type. Marissa Winokur was the greatest as Wendy Wodinski,an overweight skater who has all the right moves but not the right grooves. She will remind you of Ricki Lake in ‘Hairspray' 1988. And Barret Swatek as Veda Tilman,the perfect ice princess. I could never tell if the movie was low budget or made to look low budget but it was incredibly realistic whichever the case may be and supplemented the overall plausibility of a mocumentary. The music was campy and diverse also aiding in the over all cogency of the humor. I really enjoyed this movie. Worth a fun rent.