When a high school basketball player named Willie Joe Harris (Derrick Franklin) gets in some trouble with some local drug dealers, he goes to Dakota Smith (Fred Williamson), an ex-cop and private investigator who now spends his time golfing.  Realizing that the old neighborhood has been taken over by drug dealers like Slim Jim (Ice-T), Dakota and his friends come together to take back the streets.  Jim Brown is former football coach Chad Grant.  Ron O’Neal is Willie Joe’s guardian, Frank.  Bernie Casey is Rex Stevens, whose family was killed by hitmen looking for Willie Joe.  Together, they’re on the edge.  They’re not alone on the edge, though.  A manic Gary Busey plays a hitman named Felix.  Gloria Allred (!) plays Councilwoman Gloria Johnson, Dakota’s contact at city hall.

Fred Williamson directed On The Edge and, in tradition of Original Gangstas, the main appeal of the film is to see a bunch of former blaxploitation stars showing off that they could still own the screen.  Our stars may not move as quickly as they used to but they’re still good shots, they’re still good with a quip, and the ladies still love Fred.  The film also has an anti-drug “take care of your community” message but most people will just be watching to see Fred Williamson and Jim Brown doing their thing.  (The film’s cover art might feature Ice-T front-and-center but this is a Fred Williamson film all the way.)

The film itself isn’t great.  Sometimes, it was impossible to make out what the characters were saying and the scene with Gloria Allred mostly seemed to be there so that Fred could say that he knew Gloria Allred.  But the combination of Williamson, Casey. O’Neal, and Brown still carried a punch.  Say what you will about his films, few people were more confident on screen than Fred Williamson.