‘The Cutting Edge’ (PG)

He's fire, she's ice. He's brute strength, she's finesse. He's the assembly line, she's the social directory.

Sound familiar? How about, "Fresh air! Times Square!"

That's the premise for the new ice-skating movie "The Cutting Edge," a feeble, Olympic-year romance meant to capitalize on what the film's producers must have felt was going to be a post-Albertville mania for double Axels and triple salchows. Unfortunately, Scott Hamilton took care of the mania (it was those bow ties), and the movie is too hackneyed and feeble to capitalize on much of anything.

Actually, a premise is about all "The Cutting Edge" has, and what a tired one it is. Doug (D.B. Sweeney) is a hockey player bound for stardom who, because of an eye injury, has to give up the game. Kate (Moira Kelly) is a figure-skating champion who runs through partners like stockings. Kate's rather a tough case, you see; as the previews so cleverly put it, she has a nickname that rhymes with rich. But she and her father (played stiffly by Terry O'Quinn) are down to their last straw. If they don't find a partner for her pronto, the little case they have reserved in their trophy room for a gold medal will have to remain empty.

That's where Doug comes in. At first he's reluctant because, well, aren't figure skates for sissies? But soon, after a few clumsy outings, he starts to rise to the challenge, mastering not only the new skates but the choreography and the intricate partnering to boot. In the meantime, it's clear that, though they're from opposite sides of the tracks, Kate and Doug are falling in love. You can tell by the way they constantly claw and pick at one another.

As if we didn't expect as much. Nothing, in fact, in this Paul M. (is that initial really necessary?) Glaser film comes as much of a surprise -- not the romance, not the medal, not even the music. We've heard those trumpet riffs before; we watched Rocky do push-ups to them. And that's all "The Cutting Edge" is -- "Rocky" on skates.