Blades of Glory

This afternoon I saw Blades of Glory (2007), an ice skating comedy starring Will Farrell and Jon Heder. Two skaters of opposing styles fight and become banned from the sport until they find a loophole that allows them to skate...as a pair! Will Farrell tends to be hit or miss, his style is a go-for-the-throat mix of cartoon buffoon and smarmy egomaniac. When it works, such as his performance as Frank "the Tank" in Old School (2003) , it's laugh out loud funny. When it doesn't, such as in Anchorman (2005), it's annoyingly desperate. I'm happy to say Farrell's performance as sex addicted rebel skater Chazz Michael Michaels falls in the former. His take on figure skating as a preening macho sex god with long black hair is really good. And Farrell's found a good foil in Jon Heder as Jimmy, the Dorthy Hammil of male figure skating. Heder retains some of the cluelessness of Napoleon Dynamite in his performance as the over sheltered skating prodigy.

The two have good comedic chemestry, Farrell's barrelling energetic approach versus Heder's semi ironic caricaturization (is that a word? it is now!) match the fire and ice relationship of the characters. Blades of Glory does an excellent job of poking holes in the skating establishment, mocking the overblown theatrics of the media hype and skating routines themselves. These skaters showboat while shooting fire or releasing live doves while on the ice. The best part for me was the spot on copies of the skater profiles, with the whiplash floating camera moves and quick cuts while a sports announcer narrates the athelete's life stories with bad puns and heavy drama.

Watching the pairs teams stretch their sexuality to the limit provides much of the humor in the form of two straight skaters holding each other in male/female positions and a brother / sister team that live in their own world and are hot for each other. The brother/sister team are formidable villians played with spoiled warped evil flair by Will Arnett and Saturday Night Live's Amy Poeler. Blades also benefits from strong support by the pro skater community as Scott Hamilton, Nancy Kerrigan, Brian Boitano and others all make guest appearances.

Like most comedies, the funniest bits are in the commercials and it runs out of steam about half way through. Numerous digital effects are used to paste the actor's faces on the bodies of their body doubles/skaters but it is a forgiveable nuisance. The only true misstep in the film is an on screen decapitation that is supposed to be funny but actually comes across as horrific. Still, there are plenty of chuckles throughout the movie and a great chase scene that starts on ice but proceeds to go over streets, floors and escalators while wearing ice skates throughout.

Blades of Glory is a movie that delivers exactly on what it promises. Everything you see in the commercials it is, nothing more and nothing less. I had a good time but don't care if I see it again, all I can say is nice doing business with you Blades of Glory!