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Film review

In this comedy, little is routine

Blades of Glory's parodies, pratfalls and plot add up to an entertaining comedy that ices the competition.

By Steve Persall
Published March 29, 2007

Like figure skating, comedy can be judged on three essential elements: degree of difficulty, compulsory moves and overall presentation.

On all counts, Will Ferrell's new movie, Blades of Glory, skates close to a perfect score.

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: Not much, since figure skating is funny-looking anyway. The hyper-sequined costumes and furiously fey competition - full of pouts and tears - are ripe for ridicule. Overheated commentators make each triple axel sound like something bestowed by the heavens to cure whatever ails humanity.

Any hack could squeeze something funny from such material. On skating's old 6-point scale used in the movie, Ferrell and his fellow pranksters get a 5.2.

COMPULSORIES: Certain moves are mandatory in Ferrell comedies, and Blades of Glory nails most of them. Ferrell's role as disgraced skating champion Chazz Michael Michaels allows him to act comfortably dumb and illogically oversexed - Ricky Bobby on ice rather than asphalt.

Ferrell's customary joke, stripping to his skivvies, oblivious to the fact that not even his chest hair pattern would pass Baywatch inspection, hasn't gotten old.

Then there's the crucial sidekick. Ferrell requires someone equally unconcerned about looking stupid, someone who inspires him to the outer limits of silliness. Who better than Napoleon Dynamite, Jon Heder? As former champion Jimmy MacElroy, Heder offers the only person Chazz could legitimately outsmart.

As rivals, Chazz and Jimmy are funny. As pairs partners, thanks to a rule book loophole that allows them to sidestep their lifetime banishment from competitive skating, these guys are hilarious.

Finally, there's the unholy trinity of crude comedy staples: flatulence, vomit and crotch-bashing. Blades of Glory defiantly skips the gassy gags, but realizes that throwing up inside the enormous head of a kiddie-skate show character is as good as drunken nausea gets.

Directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck even discover an original way of hitting Chazz and Jimmy below the belt simultaneously. We'll give them a compulsories score of 5.8 and a matching set of ice packs.

OVERALL PRESENTATION: Here Blades of Glory is nearly perfect, right from opening credits that are a dead-on spoof of all those films that take skating so seriously. The plot zips along breathlessly without wasting much time on subplots or characters that wouldn't be funnier than Ferrell and Heder, anyway.

As a brother-and-sister team with an incestuous spark, Saturday Night Live pepperpot Amy Poehler and her husband, Will Arnett, come close to upstaging our hapless heroes. Jenna Fischer The Office makes an appealing romantic interest who creates a rift between the skaters.

The on-ice routines are unabashedly absurd, with stunts that make gravity seem like merely another word Chazz and Jimmy can't spell. Their attempts to perfect a decapitating move known as the Iron Lotus is inspired. Blades of Glory earns another 5.8 for its mechanics, making it a silver medal effort.

Only a corrupt Russian judge could disagree.

Steve Persall can be reached at (727) 893-8365 or persall@sptimes.com.

Review

Blades of Glory

Grade: B+

Directors: Josh Gordon, Will Speck

Cast: Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Jenna Fischer, Craig T. Nelson, William Fichtner

Screenplay: Jeff Cox, Craig Cox, John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky

Rating: PG-13; crude sexual humor, profanity, brief comical violence, drug references

Running time: 93 min.

[Last modified March 28, 2007, 09:59:56]