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Shelf Beauties |
Blades of Glory You have to admit Will
Ferrell is at an interesting point in his career.
Much like Adam Sandler, he realizes it’s
time
to expand the repertoire and do more serious movies like Stranger Than Fiction,
but audiences (and movie studios) want to see him act silly in movies
like Blades
of Glory. How long can he keep up
the clown act? If Blades
of Glory
is any
indication, he’s still funny, and audiences
shouldn’t grow tired of his antics
any time soon. Jon Heder stars as Jimmy
MacElroy – a young man adopted by an egotistical millionaire,
Darren (William
Fichtner), and trained to become a world class athlete.
At the World Winter Sport Games (because the
Olympics will sue if you call it the Olympics), Jimmy is poised to
become the gold
medal winner, but one man stands in his way, Chazz Michael Michaels
(Ferrell) –
a rebel, lone wolf skater who came up from Detroit’s
underground skating scene
to become a champion and part time porn star.
When the results are announced, the two get into a
fight on the ice that
gets them banned from the sport forever, until a loophole is discovered
that
allows the men to compete again in a different division, Pairs Figure
Skating.
Can these polar opposites
who hate each other team up and defeat the current beloved champs,
Stranz (Will
Arnett) and Fairchild (Amy Poehler)?
Will two men skating as a pair be accepted by the
sport and its fans? The key to Blades
of Glory
is silliness, and you get plenty of it in this movie.
It is a funny parody of a sport most people
don’t take seriously in the first place, but also branches
out to playfully mock
inspirational sports movies, which are ripe for mockery after we have
seen so
many of them in the last year or so.
All
of the requisite parts are there – silly outfits, crazy hair
(I think I might
go for the Chazz hairstyle if I can grow it long enough), figure
skating icons
willing to make fun of themselves and the sport, outrageous dialogue, a
story
of forbidden love and Jenna Fischer from The Office
stealing my heart with
every wholesome, sweeter-than-a-Cadbury-Egg smile.
However, like Anchorman
and Talladega
Nights
before it, Blades
of Glory
has the potential to be funnier and funnier every
time you see it with little jokes in the background you might miss the
first time. Directors Josh Gordon and
Will Speck, along with writers/brothers Jeff Cox and Greg Cox, provide
plenty
of giggle filled moments where Chazz tries to sound philosophical and
smart,
but gets it wrong, or Heder makes the most of his sheltered
character’s
reaction to Chazz’s more improvisational lifestyle. Plus, the slapstick gags
are multiple and
hilarious. However, Gordon and
Speck’s true
ability and expertise is shown in the mock broadcast elements that make
you
feel like you are watching a real competition on TV, including the
stories
describing each athlete’s background and interviews with fans. Even real life sports
broadcaster Jim
Lampley, who has been going through some very public personal problems
lately,
excels with a deadpan, believable delivery of silly play-by-play
coverage that
makes him just as funny as the great comics in the movie. Gordon and Speck deliver a
mix of broad humor and silliness, with some borderline intelligent
stuff thrown
in. Don’t
get me wrong, Blades
of Glory
is far from a movie aiming to make Einstein laugh, but you
can’t say it is
stupid from start to finish. Gordon
and
Speck never waste a moment, and move the story along, but maybe a
½ step slower
than it should. Blades
of Glory
is not ponderous
and plodding, but it could use a few more jokes and a little more
energy. At times,
you feel like every actor, except
Fischer, is holding back just a little bit too much.
Blades
of Glory ends
with a
great chase scene, and even the climactic final routine wins you over,
especially if you are a fan of Queen (you’ll see and hear
what I mean when you
go to the movie). Blades of Glory is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language, comic violence and images, some drug references
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