It’s interesting to me sometimes the movies that get made into franchises. I mean you have films like “The Matrix”, which was meant to be a trilogy, then you have films like “The Howling” which was supposed to be a stand alone film (and an exceptional one at that), but got bought up and turned into corn beef hash with ridiculous and unrelated sequels. But still, you might expect monster films or sci-fi films to build enough of a following to warrant sequels. What you might not expect… is a franchise about figure skating. Back in 1992, D.B. Sweeney and Moira Kelly teamed up for “The Cutting Edge”, which pit a prima donna figure skater and a washed up hockey player (I’ll let you decide who was who) against each other in the hopes of creating a successful skating team. I always considered “The Cutting Edge” to be a cute romance flick, carried along by the solid performances of its lead actors. I’ve seen the movie 3 or 4 times and always liked and recommended it.

Jump ahead a full 14 years and the USA Network decided it was time to make a sequel. It Starred Christy Romano as the daughter of the characters from the first film and followed almost the same plot. She had dreams of winning the Gold, hurts herself, gets teamed up with stubborn guy, sparks fly, etc… Admittedly it was a pretty lame sequel and didn’t capture any of the magic from the first film. But someone thought it was a winning combination of plot because they are back again with a third film, this one titled “The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream.”

Christy Romano returns once again, but this time she isn’t the focus of the film. We are instead introduced to an arrogant figure skater (Matt Lanter) who severely injures his partner after a botched routine. So what does he do? He goes out looking for another partner. He finds an arrogant hockey player (Francia Raisa) and together they fight, train and fall in love. Basically it’s the exact same story from the first film, only with a bit of a role reversal – which I’m sure in the mind of the director makes it an original movie.

I hoped that there was a chance that new actors might be able to rekindle the charm of the first film, but alas… they did not. It is not a bad film, and the skating looks pretty good. But there is so much formulaic plotting that the only people who will probably enjoy it are those who never saw the first film. Having seen (and loved) the first film, this one is just so much rehashing. Even the montage scene felt like it should have had the song “Montage” from “Team America” playing over it. MGM’s DVD for “The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream” includes a behind the scenes featurette and some deleted scenes, but neither really add much to the movie watching experience.

In its defense, I will say that “The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream” is far superior to the first sequel, but that just isn’t enough.

Directed by: Stuart Gillard
Starring: Matt Lanter, Christy Romano, Francia Raisa, Stefano Colacitti, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Alycia Purrotti, Luis Oliva
Extras: Making of Featurette, Deleted Scenes
Specifications: Widescreen (1.78:1), Dolby Digital 5.1
Studio: MGM
Release Date: 4/1/2008
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Website

We'll give The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream a C.