Quick Shots: Amazon's Edge

Edge was part of a plan that Amazon had when it was first getting into original programming. They produced a big group of pilots and put them out at once, then waited to see what people watched.  There were a lot of short movies, including one based on the long running Edge western series by George G. Gilman.  Edge set out to be the grittiest, bloodiest, most violent paperback western series ever.  The few I’ve paged through were… okay.  Some people loved them, but I never saw how it differentiated itself from all the other paperback western series.

So what was the Edge film like?  It was… okay.  Portraying Edge is Max Martini, who did this film between David Mamet’s The Unit and Tony Scott’s 13 Hours.  Martini has great acting chops with a good script and a good director, as you would see in the work that bookended this one.  Unfortunately here he’s working with Shane Black, who can be great (The Nice Guys, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Lethal Weapon 1 & 2) but occasionally turns out bullshit (The Predator).  From both a visual and story standpoint, this one is very mediocre, where not derivative; at some point Edge appears to land in the “Tree of Woe” from Conan the Barbarian. Somehow there is a chastity belt involved, and thus the scene below.  Meh, go watch something else.

(Just found- a great summary of the Edge series!)