THE CUTTING EDGE 3

REVIEWED BY RISSI C.

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: innuendo, sensuality, and langauge

Rated:

Since sequels and even trilogies seem to be in such high demand these days ABC family and MGM must have decided to make the Cutting Edge endeavourers into a trilogy. Despite initial misgivings, for some unknown reason this particular threesome has something that works – maybe it’s a love of figure skating or maybe the acting, but whatever, all three of these are lots of fun and worth at least one viewing.

With a major competition coming up in the form of Nationals, pair duo and “America’s Sweethearts”, Zach Conroy (Matt Lanter) and Celeste Mercier (Sarah Gadon) have a lot of work to do … and their main priority for all the dedication is to beat their rivals who won in the last meeting between the two couples, but disaster strikes when Celeste is injured in a practice session. Thus begins the tedious process of sending Zach and finding him a new but temporary partner. After a probable candidate doesn’t work out, Zach finds an alterative in tough hockey player Alexandra “Alex” Delgado (Fracia Rasia). Alex has been on skates ever since she was a little girl, but due to money problems eventually had to give up her lessons, so she pacified herself with joining her brother’s hockey league.

After a series of misfortunes, including losing his coach, Zach enlists former champion and friend Jackie Dorsey (Christy Carlson Romano) to coach the newly thrown together team with little chance of making it to Nationals, let alone actually winning. As tensions arise and tempers flare, everyone begins to see that this pair is serious and not in just for the thrill of it, but do they really believe themselves capable of achieving their dreams … or are they simply chasing the impossible? Unfortunately there are running themes throughout all three of the Cutting Edge films that will have eyes rolling. However if you go into these for purely entertainment purposes and nothing more, you will find them humorous with a share of emotional scenes while somehow still managing to sparkle in every department.

Each film echoes one another, where the first started the “tripping and ‘toe pick’” routine Cutting Edge 2 followed through and where the second started a new and often times slow moving filming, Cutting Edge 3 followed in it’s wake. Oh and did I mention that generally one partner is rich and the other often thinks them spoiled? Still despite all the similarities, each is able to stand on its own which can sometimes be an advantage and sometimes a huge disappointment. For this third entry, the disappointment comes with a missing primary character from the previous. While they let you know what happened and why the character doesn’t make an appearance, it was a rather sad conclusion and could have been handled so that it didn’t have to “be” that way.

While all three films certainly have their share of negativities, this is probably the best bet for family viewing although still not ideal. Somehow this managed to stay sweet with a bump or two along the way to an ultimately winning conclusion. We open with Zach watching skating videos in bed, and the half empty wine glasses implied he had overnight company. Various innuendos are heard; Jackie telling a couple not to sleep together, a reference about a man only complementing a woman because he “wants” her, a cheating fiancée. Alex is hurt by some photos which imply the wrong thing involving Zach; she also gets the wrong idea when seeing him enter a woman’s room at night. There is some language, uses of  “he**”, and “SOB”, pop up here and there. The most suggestive thing comes in the form of a scene that involves Alex at a ballet studio; we see her dancing to music (the dance is sensual, Zach is watching) and later on, she takes her top off as they work together (she has a sport bra on underneath). The scene remains innocent enough, but somehow still manages a suggestive feel, what makes it worse is the fact that the camera follows her movements as she practices stretching and graceful chorography. Alex tells Zach she thought he was going to “mess” with her at first, while her brother is also very protective of his little sis and rightfully so given Zach’s playboy status. A couple of skating injuries are shown, but nothing too graphic; one is a head injury that results in a small gash to the forehead.

While all three share numerous similarities (including almost identical endings), I found them entertaining and a lot of fun to watch. If you’ve not seen any of these or just The Cutting Edge, my advice would be to skip over the middle tale despite its cute storyline, as it ruins parts of three for the viewer; namely the sweet romance and we don’t feel quite as enlightened by the conclusion to number two. The skating sequences are well shot once again and enchanting, but a bit unreal at times and slow moving. Despite the overall comic feel to this, the writer has given its characters a share of emotional depth, Alex has a big yet loving family who are there for each other whenever needed, while Zach admits to not having anyone and finds himself lucky to know Alex. Jackie has been made to look more world worn but is still as passionate as ever, her dry humor is great. All the actors did well in pulling off their characters. As sad as it is these aren’t for young figure skating fans, but for older more mature young ladies, these are worth checking out even if it is only once and for more family friendly viewing, chances are with a snipped scene here and there, they would be perfectly acceptable or rent the Disney tale Ice Princess which manages all the same elements while performing a clean skate.