Movie Review: The Cutting Edge Blu-ray

When Kate Mosley throws out her last skating partner her coach tries something different as she practices toward an Olympic performance, an Olympic hockey player who left the game during the last Olympics due to an injury.

Film making 18/25

Video 18/25

Audio 22/25

Bonus Features 0/25

Total 58/100

Doug Dorsey played by D.B. Sweeney is injured in an Olympic hockey game and suffers from a blind spot, his chances at a hockey career are ruined. Kate Moseley played by Moira Kelly is a spoiled but talented skater who throws out every partner she has worked with even at the Olympics.

Kates father is rich, rich enough to afford her own full time coach and an Olympic sized skating rink along with all the training facilities. Kate thinks the world owes her a medal as she has everything she needs but a partner, enter Doug the hockey player.

Doug works in a steel mill and plays semi pro hockey but is headed nowhere in hockey but he refuses to admit it, Anton Pamchenko played by Roy Dotrice has an idea. Anton is Kate's skating coach and thinks he can make a hockey player into a figure skater but the main reason he wants Doug is his drive.

Anton thinks Doug has the drive, initiative but especially the stubbornness to handle Kate and take both of them to the Olympics. Doug finds that training to be a figure skater is not all that different than hockey minus the manly camaraderie.

During the training Doug goes home for the holidays and tells his brother and friends what he has actually been doing instead of being in the merchant marines. Doug and Kate take their figure skating act to nationals and on to the Olympics for a gold medal caliber performance.

Of course during the training their constant battle of wills turned into a love affair that others see even before they do and this also explodes in their performance at the Olympics. The Cutting Edge is a pretty good film, one of those triumphs of will and spirit but the film follows the familiar Olympic hopeful films a bit too much.

The film is pretty good and with the very well done video and audio but with a total lack of extras the film may not be worth more than a rental. Video quality is very good but not great, clear colors and good looking skin tones cannot cover the occasional loss of clarity and sharpness.

The video does not suffer from many problems but at times it is noticeable and one of the major ones is the skating scenes and transitions. Switching back and forth between the scenes of doubles and real actors the transitions are at times noticeable which detracts from the video quality.

Audio is, surprise, surprise, Dolby 2.0 Surround and sounds pretty good even with a lower speaker count but kudos to the decision makers who stayed with the original audio track. I really feel that with this type of film 2.0 surround was plenty for audio and changing anything would have lessened the quality of the audio.

As a little informational aside Dolby 2.0 Surround is different from stereo because the sound track makes use of both speakers to create a center and moving sound field. Dolby Surround for 2.0 uses both speakers as a center, left and right speaker system as well as a moving sound field between the two speakers.

The Cutting Edge has no extras on the disc at all, the only thing on the disc is the film and the original theatrical trailer, not really a bonus feature. The Cutting Edge does make me smile and it is a good film but that is about it, a good movie for a rental.

If you can find the film for a rental I would try that but a purchase would only be worth it if you really enjoy the film. Of course with a beginning price of only $12 on Amazon with a coupon you could purchase this Blu-ray for the price of a rental at those big rental stores.