Blades of Glory

So, I got talked into seeing the ice skating comedy, Blades of Glory this weekend. The film stars Will Ferrell (Elf) and Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) and is as ridiculous as the preview would lead you to believe. The premise of the moving is that Chazz Michael Michaels (Ferrell) and Jimmy MacElroy (Heder) are Olympic men’s figure skaters who tie for gold but are subsequently stripped of their medals and banned from men’s figure skating after fist fighting and setting the Olympic awards stage on fire.

Both men’s lives spiral out of control after being banned from the sport. Chazz goes on to be a performer at a children’s ice skating show where he gets drunk, swears during the production and fools around with the woodland fairies of the show. Jimmy ends up working at a sporting goods store fitting bratty children for ice skates.

The two are reunited when a maniacal fan informs Jimmy of a loophole in the skating ban which would allow him to compete in pairs figure skating. Since there is little time before the Olympic qualifiers, the only available partner is, you guessed it, Chazz Michael Michaels.

The two begin their training at an old meat hanger, learning to get along and skate as a pair. Eventually their animosity for each other fades, and they become buddies.

The villians of the movie are the residing king and queen of pairs ice skating, the Van Waldenbergs. The brother and sister team do the usual bad guy thing - cheating, lying, scheming, etc. - to try and thwart Chazz and Jimmy. Amy Poehler (SNL, Upright Citizens Brigade) plays manipulative Fairchild Van Waldenberg and is one of the funnier characters in the movie.

Of course Chazz and Jimmy defeat the evil Van Waldenbergs and become an incredible skating duo, win gold, and fly away into the sunset (literally).

I only laughed a few times while watching the movie, but I don’t think I was the target audience. So if you want a second opinion, you should probably ask a 19-year-old college guy. But if you don’t fit that demographic either, you’re probably better off checking out Premonition with Sandra Bullock (which was more up my alley).