“”Blades of Glory”” is Will Ferrell and Jon Heder’s new figure-skating-based comedy that will most likely take No. 1 at the box office this weekend. The movie is hilarious and perfects the formula used in other films like “”Dodgeball”” and “”Talladega Nights”” by parodying fringe sports.
But, as funny as the movie may be, it relies heavily on mocking homosexual stereotypes.
The movie opens with Jimmy MacElroy (Heder) being plucked from an orphanage and groomed from childhood to become the ultimate figure-skating machine a la “”Rocky IV.”” His competition at the Winter Games is skating bad-boy, Chazz Michael Michaels (Ferrell). The two tie scores and a subsequent brawl over podium space leads to them being banned from competition for life.
Three and half years later, the rivals are down and out until a loophole in the rules lets them enter the next Winter Games as a male-male pairs figure-skating team.
“”Blades of Glory”” is Will Ferrell’s best comedy to date. He’s at the top of his obnoxious-misogynistic-irate game and carries the movie at all the right times. Heder and Ferrell work great together and the movie also helps break Heder from his vicious cycle of “”Napoleon Dynamite”” typecasting.
Supporting characters include “”Saturday Night Live’s”” Amy Poehler and Will Arnett, of “”Arrested Development”” fame, as a brother/sister figure-skating pair. Attempting to
“”Blades of Glory””
Rating: PG-13
Length: 93 min.
Production Company: MTV Films
steal the gold medal, the two send their neglected little sister, played by Jenna Fischer (Pam from “”The Office””), to romantically separate their opponents. This dynamic creates the funniest situations in the movie between Heder and Fischer’s characters.
The film however goes a little too far, force-feeding countless homoerotic situations between the two figure skaters. Where Sacha Baron Cohen’s “”Borat”” intelligently used ignorance to humorously expose anti-Semitism, homophobia and xenophobia, “”Blades of Glory”” is the opposite. The movie regularly throws the two characters in precariously gay situations to milk the audience for cheap laughs.
Despite the aforementioned dependence on mocking homosexuality, the movie is still hilarious. Will Farrell is at the top of his game and “”Blades of Glory”” is the best comedy this year … well, at least until this summer’s “”Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.””