Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

calvinnme ...and a bit obvious to at least me as a viewer. Why can't the parents see what is going on if I can see it from just about frame one and one outsider says the whole problem in one sentence clearly stated as he speeds away from town? The locale is one of those HOA standalone developments in the prairie that was built from end to end as a planned community. The location is never mentioned. The filming was done in Aurora,Colorado, but it appears to be possibly an exoburb of a large city in California (LA/SF/SD??) that is far enough away from the city that urban criminals will not be hanging around, and if they do will stick out like a non-white thumb, yet close enough that "dad" can still commute. This film was made at the tail end of an era in which the majority of wives stayed at home while dad trudged to work every morning. All of the apartments look alike. All of the houses look alike. The high school looks like a prison and seemingly has no history or traditions and is named after the development for which it was formed - New Granada.There are tennis courts and other amenities for the adults. The problem? There is absolutely NOTHING for the children to do. There is one lone recreation center, but it only has a few pool tables so the kids get together there and share their collective bad habits. Predictably as the children turn into teens they dabble in alcohol, drugs, bored heavy petting and sex, vandalism, and pranks that could turn dangerous - shooting a bee-bee gun at a cop car from an overpass and setting up fireworks to go off underneath cars.The parents treat the kids like they are some other species. Every incident sparks a reaction from the adults that just makes the kids more rebellious and bored - stay away from your friends! Close down that rec center, it is nothing but a breeding ground for trouble! We need a 9PM curfew! etc. You just want to shake these people and say "Get a grip! These are YOUR kids! How would you feel in this environment? This is not The Village of the Damned!" Then a gun gets into the hands of the teens. They practice shooting cans, they like the power it gives them, then they get into trouble playing a practical joke with it, the cops join chase, and one kid ends up dead. The kid's gun - unloaded at the time.This causes a final scene that just goes a bit too wild for 1979 suburban kids. It seems like the director said - to quote the film Ed Wood - "I want the film to end with a big explosion". I'll let you watch and find out what happens.If I have any other criticism at all it is that, although they talk about what they don't want, I never hear enough about what the kids DO want. They never seem quite humanized enough for me in spite of numerous scenes of conversation between each other. However, it is good seeing later talent developing at a young age - Matt Dillon and Vincent Spano in particular. I'd recommend it.

Dan Franzen (dfranzen70) Matt Dillon made his acting debut in Over the Edge playing a punk kid, a character he would parlay into a few more coming-of-age movies in subsequent years. He managed to have a pretty fair career despite the typecasting. Here, his nascent bad-boy personality and charm kick the movie up a notch or two, making a household name for himself in the process.New Grenada is a fictional town in the middle of the desert, a planned community. There's nothing for kids to do, save for hanging out at the local recreation center - which inconveniently closes at 6 pm. It's only a matter of time before the garden-variety vandalism worsens, and sure enough, when two kids fire a BB gun at a police-officer's car from an overpass, tensions in the town become proportionally thicker.At the center of the movie is young Carl (Michael Eric Kramer), son of the homeowners' association president, who's trying to get Texas millionaires to buy some prime real estate in town (rather than build a bowling alley). Carl is described as a nice, smart kid who happens to run with a rebellious crowd, particularly the perpetually on-probation Richie (Dillon), who wears his damn-the-man attitude like a pair of tighty whities.The scourge of the kids' existence is authority in the name of one Officer Doberman (Harry Northup), who is not above harassing the kids any chance he gets. And, for much of the movie, he gets plenty of chances. And when the rec center is inevitably shut down (the better to prevent the rich investors from noticing the Kid Problem), all hell really breaks loose in a realistic, tragic denouement.The script (by Charles Haas and Tim Hunter) effectively illustrates the angst of late-seventies teens desperate to do something, anything, to entertain themselves, something that'll gain themselves notice if not notoriety. The movie is loosely based on an incident that occurred in a real-life planned community in California in the early 1970s and certainly still rings true today.

viewsonfilm.com Over the Edge is an intense teen drama that marks the acting debut of Matt Dillon (he had no formal training before the cameras rolled). For me, this stands as one of the best films of the 1970's (released in the U.S. in 1981) and a clear bonified snapshot of that era. This is a well acted, angst driven vehicle with many unknowns (it marked the first screen appearances for a majority of the cast members). It tells the story of some troubled Colorado kids who cause havoc (gunfire, vandalism, drug dealing, etc...) in their neighborhood at the expense of their mostly misunderstood parents.Director Jonathan Kaplan (admittedly) filmed a lot of scenes with wide shots that let things play out naturally. It's a cinematic technique that was prevalent in that decade. I found the method very effective and in turn hail this flick as a minor classic. There is a time capsule type feeling to what's on screen. It's intoxicating and "Edge" concludes with what I believe to be an ironically powerful ending. Watch for the image of Dillon (Richie White) standing on top of a police car. It's iconic!

josh203 The thing I find extraordinary about this movie is that it captures so well the way we looked and behaved in the 70's. These aren't Hollywood teens, they're real teens. The kids in this movie are almost like a marijuana-hazy tidal pool, self-contained, separate from, and ignored or misunderstood by, adults on the other side of the "generation gap." Which is exactly what it was like.Someone criticized the acting, but that's precisely the point -- these kids aren't acting, they're real. Other Hollywood productions of the era were made by older people who were puzzled by and didn't understand the changes that occurred in the 60's. We used to laugh at their efforts, because they were so clueless. This movie gets us as we really were, and it takes me back in a way that no other movies do. I wish there were an equivalent for the oh-so-wonderful 60's, an era which is very well remembered but the spirit of which has not been preserved.That being said, I find the filmmakers' social attitudes somewhat dated. Arguably, the anything goes attitude of the parents of our generation was a disaster, leading to rampant drug use, teen pregnancy, an epidemic of crime. In particular, (SPOILER) I find the PC notion that a cop is wrong to shoot a kid who pulls a gun on him is more than a little ridiculous. What do the filmmakers expect him to do? Wait to see if a bullet leaves the muzzle, then deflect it if necessary with his Wonder Woman bracelets? You don't have to be an adult to know that drawing a gun, loaded or not, on a police officer is Darwin Awards territory.The few sympathetic adults in this movie actually seem to like the kids, rather than treating them as unfathomable enemies or ignoring them. And because they like and know them, they understand them. But a bit of firmness is necessary as well. For all the guns, cigarettes, pot, booze, and sexuality, these are still kids, working to become adults and needing guidance to do so. In this movie, the firmness comes in the wrong form, delivered by police officers and school officials who have no affinity with or understanding of the kids in their charge. But license isn't the key: events showed that.