The Cutting Edge 2

THE CUTTING EDGE:

GOING FOR THE GOLD

REVIEWED BY RISSI C.

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: sexual material, language, and brief nudity

Rated:

Cutting Edge: Going for the Gold is the story of Doug and Kate Dorsey’s daughter Jackie. As a fan of figure skating, I enjoy watching any skating movie I can find. I had read about Cutting Edge 2 and I was excited about seeing it, but thought that maybe the content would ruin the film for me. While this is definitely a PG-13 movie, I thought it was a very cute story.

Former Olympic champions Doug and Kate Dorsey (Scott Thompson Baker and Stepfanie Kramer) now own a skating rink and coach their headstrong daughter Jackie (Christy Carlson Romano). Jackie is at the top of her game and heading toward the 2006 winter Olympics. After she is injured in a competition, her dream of Olympic gold seems out of her reach. Her parents decide she needs a break and so they give her a trip to California. While there, she meets Alex (Ross Thomas), an in-line skater, at the beach. After running into each other again the next day, they both feel an instant attraction and plan to meet later that night. Before Jackie leaves, an argument ensues and they part never expecting to see each other again.

Back home in Connecticut, Jackie decides to become a pairs skater since there isn’t as much of a requirement on the jumps. Alex sees her on TV in an interview and decides to try out for her partner. How hard can it be? Once in Connecticut, they began to train for the Olympics. Little does Alex know how much it really takes to train as a figure skater. During the long hours of training and Alex living with them, Jackie and Alex start to develop romantic feelings for each other, but they both have a temper and sparks soon fly between them. In an interview, Alex overhears Jackie remark that she might go back to single skating, so he decides she no longer needs him and leaves for California. Upset that Alex would give up with them being so close to the Olympics, Jackie goes after him, but discovers that he and his old girlfriend Hiedi (Kim Kindrick) are talking about getting married.

Devastated that he no longer cares for her, Jackie decides to put her feelings aside and bring him back so they can finish their training. There are several unnecessary scenes that didn’t add to the storyline, for example: Jackie’s bikini top comes untied while she’s in the water, there are a couple of guys on the beach watching (the camera doesn’t show anything). Alex’s girlfriend stays the night at the Dorsey’s and Jackie walks into Alex’s room to find them taking a shower together (we get a brief glimpse of their backside). Two characters “demonstrate” the moves of figure skating to a disruptive customer at a bar and make a crude remark. It’s implied Alex and Hiedi live together, one scene shows her in their room with just a tank top and her underwear on. Alex gets drunk one night, there are several other scenes that has the characters drinking. The characters use some strong language, but it gets better as the film goes on. Jackie is disrespectful to her parents at the beginning of the film.

I have only seen Christy Carlson Romano in one other movie. I thought that she did a fine job as Jackie Dorsey. I think my favorite scenes are between Jackie and her dad, I really felt Christy and Scott had a wonderful connection as father and daughter. As someone who didn’t watch the first film, I can’t say which one is better, but I didn’t feel I had missed anything by not seeing the original. I laughed a lot through the movie and really enjoyed it. It had a lot of potential to be a lighthearted romantic comedy but it failed with all of the sexual material that was added. I would have enjoyed it a lot better without all of the inappropriate content. One other complaint I have about the film is the ending. I felt it was an abrupt, however after watching it a second time I did like it better. I wouldn’t recommend this for anyone under 17.