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Tuesday, 10 April 2007 18:22 |
 By ELIZABETH MEADS
The pitch session for the comedy ìBlades of Gloryî had to have been the shortest in Hollywood history. The producers must have said, ìPicture this ... Anchorman and Napoleon Dynamite... on ice skates!î From that point on, this blockbuster hit surely wrote itself.
Consequently, Will Ferrell (known for his many comedies such as ìElfî and ìAnchormanî) joined with Jon Heder (known for his role in ìNapoleon Dynamiteî) hit the theaters with another smash hit, ìBlades of Glory,î which has produced $33 million thus far. Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, and Jenna Fischer also star in the movie.
The ice-thin storyline has two male figure skaters, Jimmy MacElroy,
played by Heder, and Chazz Michael Michaels, played by Ferrell, as two
rivals ó and complete opposites ó who end up (predictably) becoming
comrades.
Hederís character is the feminine and delicate skater. His initial
performance consists of him gracefully floating on ice, dressed as a
peacock with a flaming tail. By contrast, Ferrell plays a very
masculine figure skater, consistently bringing leather and sexual
references into the performances. ìPersonal philosophy: clothing
optional,î he opines.
As the plot progresses, the two Olympic competitors are stripped of
their gold medals and permanently banned from competing in the menís
singles competition because of their constant fighting. However, three
and a half years later, they find a loophole that allows them to
qualify as a pair team.
Despite this threadbare plot line, I did consistently laugh throughout
the movieís short running time (of about 1 hour and 25 minutes.) Its
special effects were somewhat shaky, but enough to get by on for a
skating routine between two comics.
 Once Jimmy and Chazz begin training together as a pair, Ferrell and
Heder get the chance to work off each other comedically. This is when
the film really takes off, with Ferrell consistently giving his
notorious one-liners that kept the audience laughing out loud when I
saw it.
Ferrellís over-the-top manly male figure skater is genuinely hilarious.
Much of the humor comes from his mocking Hederís ìfeminineî qualities.
This is essentially a one-joke film ó but between the two of them
bickering like an old married couple, they keep the joke going by
finding every possible variation on the hate-hate relationship between
Chazz and Jimmy, played out at the level of petulant six-year-olds.
(Chazz: Night is a very dark time for me.
Jimmy: Itís dark for everyone, idiot!
Chazz: Not for people who live in Alaska. Or people with night-vision goggles.)
Since this is a Will Ferrell movie, directors Will Speck and Josh
Gordon supplement the spoken humor by adding endless displays of kicked
groins, countless smacks to the face, and numerous pratfalls, exercises
that fit snugly into a movie centered on ice-skating.
The audience apparently loved this film, laughing continuously
throughout and clapping at the end. But be forewarned: While it is a
funny film, donít go expecting anything more than a stupid movie about
Will Ferrell as a figure skater.
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