Walking the Edge

Director - Norbert Meisel (Night Children, The Devil Made Me Do It)

Starring - Nancy Kwan (Streets of Hong Kong, The Last Ninja), Robert Forster (Vigilante, Alligator), and Joe Spinell (Maniac, Rocky)

Release Date - 1985

Genre - Action/Crime

Tagline - "All hell broke loose when they stopped..."

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     Vinegar Syndrome has been known to destroy wallets and break up relationships with their steady stream of monthly releases.  I'll be the first to admit that I'm a huge fan of Vin Syn and I would be lying if I said I wasn't addicted to their monthly releases.  With that being said, I'm also obsessed with their partner labels.  Sometime back Vin Syn introduced the world to Fun City Editions and I've been hooked ever since.  This fairly new label has really impressed me with their releases of Jeremy, Alphabet City, and Smile.  When they announced the release of Walking the Edge I knew this would be yet another first day purchase from the rising label.

     The film follows city taxi driver Jason (Forster) who picks up Christine (Kwan) and soon finds himself in the middle of a shoot out between Christine and group of thugs that is responsible for killing her husband and son.  With a hit on his head, Jason soon finds himself hiding and fighting for survival as homicidal thugs search for him.

     Walking the Edge is a film I was only recently aware of after someone on Facebook shared the original poster for the film.  I love artwork from the mid-80s and I instantly wanted to see it.  Sadly, copies for this one were out of my price range which only fueled my day one purchase of the film from Fun City.  The movie did live up to the artwork and I really enjoyed it.  FCE did a fantastic job with this one and I can see why Vin Syn has partnered with them.  The acting in this one is great.  I assumed that Forster would be the one carrying the film but he's not.  He does deliver a memorable performance here but Kwan is the real star.  She's a woman that was pushed too far and witnessed the death of her son.  I've seen crazy before and Kwan does one hell of a job at portraying it on screen.  There was several occasions where her performance gave me chills.  It's also great to see another performance from the late Joe Spinell.  He was one hell of an actor and did a fantastic job here.  The story for this one is almost a female lead version of Death Wish.  We follow a woman who had her family ripped apart by gangsters who then goes on a killing spree to avenge their deaths.  Pretty similar to Death Wish except it's not as gritty and more character driven than story driven.  It was fun but there was a few scenes that felt rushed and very uneven.  I don't know if the crew was under a deadline or something but these scenes do stand out and interrupt the flow of the film.  Finally, the film has some bloody and some gun wounds but that's the extent of it.  The film is more concerned with the characters over blood.  Overall, Walking the Edge may not be the most action packed action flick to come out of the 80s but it does entertain which is all we can ask from it.  It has a great cast and a solid story that works.  The release from Fun City is gorgeous and should be on every collector's shelf.