67
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Time OutTime OutScript, photography and performances (including Dillon before he decided to become a teenage Stallone) are all top notch, while Kaplan directs with pace, imagination, and a fine ear for dialogue and music.
- 80NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenOver the Edge is a rabble-rouser--and a good, tough, darkly funny movie to boot. [28 Dec 1981, p.65]
- 78Austin ChronicleAustin ChronicleThe young Dillon effortlessly portrays the thuggish Richie, and Kramer is believable as the misunderstood kid turned miscreant. Add a pulsating soundtrack featuring the Ramones, Van Halen, and Cheap Trick, and you have a vibrant depiction of confused teen life.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOver the Edge is a funeral service held at the graveside of the suburban dream. It tells a ragged story that ends with an improbable climax, but it's acted so well and truly by its mostly teen-age cast that we somehow feel we're eavesdropping.
- 75TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazinePerceptive, kinetic and entirely believable.
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottOver The Edge is a good, dangerous film, and it's good in part because it is dangerous - it puts you in touch with these kids' frustrations, and it allows you to feel the relief an explosion brings. [25 June 1982]
- 70The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyA lot of Over the Edge is awkwardly acted and motivated, but it is staged with such vivid efficiency and concern that, as you watch it, you are frequently caught halfway between a giggle and a gasp.
- 60Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrPart wish fulfillment and part social moralizing, the film never resolves its point of view, but a few of the apocalyptic images stay in the mind.
- 40Washington PostGary ArnoldWashington PostGary ArnoldOver the Edge is an oafishly made movie that claims to deal with a documented case of adolescent unrest in an authentic upper-middle-class social setting, then manipulates the situation only for hypocritical suggestions of teen-age vice and picturesque sprees of teen-age violence. [04 Mar 1982, p.C13]