Blades of Glory (Josh Gordon & Will Speck, 2007)

There's really very little worthwhile that I can say about Blades of Glory that you weren't already expecting. It's a Will Ferrell vehicle, and that alone is enough to get me, and tons of other people, by the sold-out showing I went to last night, into the theaters on opening night. I really do think that Ferrell is, and very rightfully so, the face of American comedy, and that's a good thing. Will Ferrell as a figure skater? Count me in. But there are a lot of problems (surprise, surprise) with Blades of Glory that don't quite make it up to par with the Ferrell/Adam McKay collaborations (Anchorman and Talladega Nights). First, there's Jon Heder. Sure, he was funny as Napoleon Dynamite, but since then? All crap. Admittedly, he wasn't as terrible as I expected him to be, but they really could have gotten any other guy and put him in this role that would have been just as good, and less annoying. His scenes with love interest Jenna Fischer (America's crush) are really good, cute and funny, and that saved him in the movie. The supporting cast is a mixed bag as well. Will Arnett is criminally underused (he's another of the funniest men working), and Amy Poehler as his sister/skating partner is overused, or, rather, misused. She screeches and doesn't show her comedy chops at all. I'm not a huge Poehler fan, but I know she can be funnier than this, and Arnett outshines her with half the lines. Romany Malco (of The 40 Year Old Virgin) is also very underused in the role of choreographer. But for those guys that are underused, there's Nick Swardson who, after Ferrell, was my favorite part of the movie as a creepy stalker of Heder's character. Sure, he's just playing a variation on Reno 911!'s Terry, but with a character that great, why wouldn't you? There are some abnormally huge plot holes (what happened to Heder's father after he was unadopted? Why bring up Ferrell's beloved Italian brush, only to never talk about it again? and so on), but Ferrell and his one-liners really make this golden. Not a Ferrell classic, but a real laugh riot, one definitely worth seeing. 8/10

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