The Cutting Edge is one of the more unlikely film series ever to hit the big screen. The 1992 original starring Moira Kelly and D.B. Sweeney was a touching film that did moderately well but was never heard from again until 2006, when an unexpected sequel showed up. The Cutting Edge: Going for the Gold starred little-known actors Ross Thomas and Christy Carlson Romano. Romano is supposedly the descendant of Kelly and Sweeney’s characters, but considering there was only about 14 years between the first film and the second, that’s a bit of a stretch.

The newest entry, The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream, was released this year and stars Matt Lanter (the cheerleader’s flying boyfriend on Heroes) and Francia Raisa. The twist this time around is that Lanter’s character is the figure skater with Olympic dreams and Raisa’s the rough-skating hockey player who must learn grace and acrobatics on ice in time to help Lanter win the gold.

Romano makes a cameo as her character from the second film to give the newest installment some continuity with those that have come before. Like Going for the Gold, Chasing the Dream began life as a made-for-television movie, so the DVD release doesn’t have a lot of special features; there’s a making of featurette and some deleted scenes and that’s it. No commentary track or any of the other usual DVD goodies.

Lanter’s a plus to the film since he’s a familiar face from his run on Heroes, and Francia Raisa’s an appealing newcomer who appears to have the potential to go on and do better things. While Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream is a bit of a paint-by-numbers affair, it is more appealing than the somewhat lackluster Going for the Gold, though neither hold much of a candle to the theatre-release original, which was a decent mixture of romantic comedy and sports movie with two half-decent, appealing stars.

That’s not to say that Lanter and Raisa are not appealing, but it’s clear that the film was made on a made-for-TV budget. It’s not the kind of gold you hide under your mattress, but it’s good, old-fashioned filmmaking that won’t be released only in a profanity and nudity-filled unrated version; in other words, it’s pretty safe for the kids.

In that sense, this PG-13-rated fare is golden for family viewing. About my only complaint is that the acrobatic move with which this couple attempts to achieve their Olympic dreams is just a bit too close for comfort to a similar (but deadlier) move used in the recent Will Farrell comedy, Blades of Glory, and thus ends up being unintentionally amusing.