Watch The Cutting Edge: Fire & Ice For Free

People are voting emotionally.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I'll gladly give the full rack of stars for this perfect little movie with its arena of drama, humor, romance and skating. The two main characters possessed a convincing chemistry that made me hope for a Cutting Edge 5 just so I could see them together again, for better or worse. Red-hot chemistry aside, Francia Raisa and Brenden Fehr both turned out excellent performances. Their acting seemed as though they weren't acting --- which is to say, they played their parts convincingly and beautifully in every way.Both of these actors, no doubt, have promising futures in the industry; their talents qualify them for roles above and beyond the ordinary. They should - and CAN - aim high.

The Cutting Edge:Fire And Ice is the third sequel or better yet third remake of the video rental hit,The Cutting Edge that featured D.B. Sweeney and Moira Kelly.While I may not say that to criticize the film,part of that will definitely come up as I progress with my review.The story of the film picks from where where it left off,The Cutting Edge :Chasing The Dream as we get to see Alex who just recently broke up with her partner,Zack Conroy and now is semi-retired from figure skating and spends more of her time teaching young kids to skate in the ice rink.We still see her missing the sport.It only makes it worse when a reporter named Philip who admires her calls her up and invites her to come with him in the Nationals as an audience rather than a participant.Obviously,it only makes Alex far more less interested with the guy.Enter James McKinsey known as a the bad boy of speed skating.After punching a teammate,he was banned indefinitely from the sport.He tries to maintain his presence in the scene by becoming a figure skater and tries to convince Alex Delgado to get back into the sport. Then the story begins of an unlikely partnership as well as a romance that will develop later as the movie progress until they compete in the World Skating Championship.Apparently,this has become the trend of all the three sequels of The Cutting Edge films which has been obviously patterned from Tony Gilroy's original script.Some of the fans of the cult classic will definitely be disappointed with it.They realize that a lot of the plot elements have been taken from the original film.It begins with the unlikely partnership between Alex and James and the constant quarrels that they engage in.Also,we get to see familiar scenes taken from the first film such as James and Alex arguing about costumes and music and both bumping into each other in the stadium.Also,what about the final scene after the final skate of James and Alex wherein the latter says "I love you" and the former responding,"Just remember who said it first.".While some would definitely be touched with that scene,many fans of the original film would probably have raised their eyebrows!!!!!And a lot more to mention. In summary,it definitely did try to identify with the previous three sequels or remakes and it never in one moment try to identify itself as a stand alone movie.What makes it different though is that the film focused on the romantic story and less on figure skating.This is where it became interesting.Credit should be given to the lead stars Francia Raisa and Brendan Fehr for their great chemistry.Despite the fact that it was obviously another attempt to re-tell Tony Gilroy's script,both provided great performances that made their characters interesting.Although the story is far from being a good one since a lot of the elements were taken from the previous three films,both Raisa and Fehr lifted the movie into becoming a better than expected and another enjoyable sequel of the film.

Perhaps the worst-kept secret in Hollywood at this point is the incredible talent that is Los Angeles native Francia Raisa, currently of The Secret Life Of The American Teenager. She reminds me of an unbeaten racehorse who keeps winning, even as it moves up in class. The more they give her to work with, and the brighter they shine the light upon her, the better she performs. She is developing so fast as an actress that a future Oscar is likely, once she gets a script worthy of that level of performance. Sadly, this film, like its predecessor (CE3), doesn't rise to that level, but she manages to make a good film out of mediocre film with yet another flawless performance. Raisa is back as Alex Delgado, with a new "pinwheel" cast designed to highlight her talents, much as in CE2, with Christy Romano. Her supporting cast is much stronger, with numerous actors likely to become household names as well, most notably Brendan Fehr, who has been bouncing around television, most notably the CSI franchise, for a while. His talents allowed Raisa to shine much more than Matt Lanter in CE3. The plot is standard by now: love-hate relationship between longshot pairs figure skaters complicates existing obstacles to glory. It worked so well in 1992 that ABC Family has taken to making three sequels, each with a slightly different angle. As I said in my review of the first film, surprise is not the goal here, but romance, although this film is a bit lacking in that department. By now, fans of this franchise have embraced its predictability, instead focusing on the cast, the acting, the plagiarism from the original(s), and how the story will once again be retold. This film could have done well even as a standalone, big-budget, feature film. Raisa is going to be out of challenges soon enough, and should wait patiently for the "role of a lifetime," the one that will let her show the less perceptive folks in the world know she's one of the best (and hottest) actresses of this generation. She is everything Jennifer Lopez wishes she were, but never became, and then some.

Brendan Fehr did a great job of playing the "bad boy", who secretly has a good heart and real character. He was charismatic and interesting in every scene. I thought that the two leads skated well together and that added to their chemistry.His scene with small girls in the skating class was adorable. Brendan milked a laugh out of very weak scene with the banana and the blender. He was sexy and intense in the one love scene.Lastly, he looked great in the sport clothes for practice. Kudos to the wardrobe department. I wish that could have come up with something better for his competition outfits.Yes, the producers are telling the same story as the first 3 movies, so the audience knows exactly what to expect by the final skate/scene.