Hard Edge (1997)

Hard Edge” is a wannabe survival drama set in cozy rural England that mostly fires blanks. Second low-budget feature from young Brit director Caleb Lindsay, who bowed three years ago with the slight but promising Gen-X dramatic comedy “Chasing Dreams,” is torpedoed by blah dialogue and largely collegiate playing. Tightening by some 10 minutes could make this privately funded item a passable vid entry for undiscriminating couch potatoes.

Prime candidate for shearing is an awkward six-minute pre-credit sequence of the two leads, bearded John (Luke Shaw) and balding Ben (Simon Bateso), fooling around in their London office. The repartee marginally improves as the two guys drive through rural southern England to a survival-games weekend, where they immediately get on the wrong side of the psychotic sergeant in charge (David O’Kelly).

Story really begins a half-hour in when, having been kicked off the weekend, John and Ben linger in the region instead of heading straight back to London. They first bump into Jim (Matt Lane), a computer nerd they’d befriended at the games, and then the sergeant, who drunkenly challenges the trio to a rematch the next day. Catch is, sarge and his bozo pals come armed with real guns.

With better dialogue and more professional actors, the idea of a bunch of townies being trapped in an irreal circle of violence somewhere between “Deliverance” and “Straw Dogs” could have worked, and in the second half, as the aggression escalates, the pic occasionally hits its stride. Lindsay shows a natural talent for widescreen compositions that ensures a good-looking product, and other tech contributions are pro.

Shaw (good in “Chasing Dreams”) is variable as John, the voice of quiet reason, and Bateso miscast as party animal Ben; O’Kelly is comically over-the-top as the loony sergeant. The presence in two scenes of veteran actor Bryan Marshall, as the lads’ London boss, hints at what the pic could have achieved with more experienced thesps. Producers have already cut two minutes from the running time since the Cannes market preem caught.