The Edge

Twentieth Century Fox | Release Date: September 26, 1997

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

66	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Keith Phipps

Much of The Edge's success can be credited to Baldwin and Hopkins, who know just how far to push a performance without crossing too far into ham territory. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

As an adventure movie, it makes good on its promise and its title. It carries us to the edge. [26 Sep 1997, p.A]

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Tamahori proves that he can shape a studio picture effectively to his specs; his action sense is as personal as his screenwriter’s. As for Hopkins and Baldwin, the well-matched actors grab their parts with disciplined ferocity. Read full review

The PlaylistChance Solem-Pfeifer

Is it a somewhat middling ’90s dad-core thriller? You bet, but it’s also a totally underrated skeleton key for understanding the careers of its two leads: Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. Read full review

Janet Maslin

There's no need to worry that Mamet is on foreign territory with this action premise. The Edge succeeds ably in blending his famously acerbic dialogue with nerve-racking adventure scenes. Read full review

David Ansen

Mamet brings an unusual level of intelligence to this boys'-adventure formula, and an edgy understanding of the ongoing games of one-upmanship men play. After a rocky, dutifully expositional beginning, The Edge turns into an unusually gripping suspense movie, its peril all the more effective for being unfashionably low-tech. Read full review

Roger Ebert

The Edge is like a wilderness adventure movie written by David Mamet, which is not surprising, since it was written by Mamet. It's subtly funny in the way it toys with the cliches of the genre. Read full review

Scott Tobias

Tamahori’s workmanlike production doesn’t match the elemental power of Mamet’s script, and it fails to evoke the harsh physical conditions that turn ordinary, civilized men into resourceful survivalists and predators. Read full review

Jay Boyar

David Mamet, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter (The Verdict) and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (Glengarry Glen Ross), is in a pop-elemental mode here, spinning simple, basic myths about manhood for the masses. [26 Sep 1997, p.19]

Steven Rea

The Edge isn't particularly deep stuff, but Tamahori isn't a particularly deep filmmaker - he's just really, really good, with an affinity for the natural landscape that comes across brilliantly on screen. [26 Sep 1997, p.03]

John Hartl

The logistics of this outdoor adventure may not be entirely convincing, but the characters usually are. That's a rarity in this kind of picture, and Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin rise to the challenge with some of the best work they've done in a long time. [26 Sep 1997]

Steve Persall

Director Lee Tamahori (Mulholland Falls, Once Were Warriors) proceeds at an admirable pace through these jeopardies, yet always gives the impression that he's more concerned with the emotional violence boiling underneath a scene than the physical excitement. [26 Sep 1997, p.3]

Deborah Peterson

It's a good if formulaic adventure film that's lifted above the routine by Hopkins and Bart. [26 Sep 1997, p.E03]

R.L. Shaffer

Alas, The Edge is a film that, quite ironically, loses it. Read full review

Kenneth Turan

The Edge's fusion of Mametspeak with a true life adventure remains brawny entertainment, even it it is difficult to take as seriously as the filmmakers intend. But when Bart is on his game, nobody is going to notice anything else.[26 Sep 1997, p.F4]

Todd McCarthy

Although thin character motivation and some far-fetched plotting strain credulity in the late going, for the most part The Edge is a tense, visceral battle-of-wits thriller played out against a spectacular wilderness background. Read full review

Barbara Shulgasser

It takes more than a few lines of clever dialogue, a hero who reads books, and an actor with British training and lots of dignity to keep a movie from going pretty much by the book. Read full review

Tonya Pendleton

If you're a great fan of either Hopkins or Baldwin, or a wilderness aficionado, The Edge may prove to be entertaining. But for everyone else, it's a pretty long walk in the woods. [26 Sep 1997, p.F10]