Blades of Glory

Starring: Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, Jenna Fisher, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Craig T. Nelson, William Fitchner, Andy Richter (cameo), Luke Wilson (cameo)
Directed by: Josh Gordon, Will Speck
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy, Sports
2007

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: After a fight following a skating competition, two American figure skaters (Will Ferrell, Jon Heder) are expelled from skating for life. Later, they find a loophole in the ruling- they can compete together, in doubles figure skating. This shocks the world, and most especially, the leading American doubles team (Will Arnett, Amy Poehler), who will stop at nothing to prevent them from winning the gold.

Review:

Tim: I am starting to think Will Ferrell’s insistence on making this sports comedies needs to come to an end. This film takes on the world of figure skating (to be fair, a world that desperately needed a comedic take) and paints it in a similar absurd fashion to NASCAR in Talladega Nights. However, this movie is significantly less funny.

I honestly believe that no matter how terrible a movie Will Ferrell makes (Bewitched, Kicking & Screaming), there will always be at least a few moments where he is absolutely hilarious. Luckily, he has several very funny moments here. While at times he’s too ridiculous to be funny, he’s still perhaps the funniest man in America, and gets to show that off here. I love his face when he’s holding Jon Heder upside down while skating, and his “Whoever invented rope is an a-hole” is still my favorite line of the movie. This isn’t his best effort, but Ferrell is very funny here.

Jon Heder could have been funnier if he wasn’t such a terrible actor. Half of his lines are delivered so poorly that I had a hard time believing in him. I don’t like to dump on Heder because I really enjoyed him in Napoleon Dynamite, but he’s just awful here. Likewise awful are Will Arnett and Amy Poehler. I just couldn’t enjoy either one of them—they were more annoying than anything else. Craig T. Nelson was decent, not evoking either praise or disdain from me. I really enjoyed Jenna Fischer in her role—I’m a huge fan of her, and she was excellent throughout the movie. The rest of the supporting cast—including a long line of real-life figure skaters—are all surprisingly enjoyable.

While Ferrell has yet to reach the same heights he did with Anchorman, this film still ranks fairly high. While it’s not exactly a comedic masterpiece, there are some truly funny scenes here. The ice skating scenes don’t particularly look realistic, but they are hilarious nonetheless. Ferrell always throws himself completely into his roles, and that is evident here. If you can get past the incredibly absurd premise, Blades of Glory should provide at least a few decent laughs.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Semi-Pro, Talladega Nights, Kicking & Screaming