Blades of Glory

Blades of Glory_720p(480P)

source: Blades of Glory

The low reviewers who reference 'gay' in there titles or reviews really shine a light on how much more education and understanding we must strive for. It's not a documentary about two gay men who want to ice dance together as an expression of their love for each other for god's sake. IT'S A COMEDY with a ridiculous premise that is genuinely funny.

I have not laughed so hard in at least ten years. During the first routine that they were both in, I laughed till I thought I couldn't laugh any harder. Then, As soon as I started to relax, something even funnier happened. 5 straight minutes like that and I was almost on the floor. Will Ferrel has been a favorite of mine for a long time and this movie takes the cake. Jon Heder made a perfect partner for him in this movie. The two played so well off of each other. they need to do more movies as a team. As usual, Amy Poehler plays the perfect Evil Woman so perfectly and Will Arnett is such a natural in his character alongside her. Jenna Fischer and the rest of the cast fill out a perfect collection for a very funny movie. I don't regret one penny of the money spent to go and see this one and I plan on buying the DVD as soon as it is available.

Not being a huge fan of Will Ferrell's overdone antics, my expectations were at a humbled minimum upon viewing the latest showcase for his repetitious, though always smart comedic offerings. Surprisingly, the bland and undercooked laugher dealing with two silly men figure skating as a pair, barely managed to appease even my lowest predictions. Playing out like yet another halfway developed, openly lazy, SNL-sketch-launched-to-big-screen, the little laughter Ferrell can muster does not save the majority of lifeless chuckles that miss the humor mark. Often I found myself dispelling air in a way that sort of prompts the psyche for belly laughs, but hardly being able to follow through. All these insincere, mere formalities of dispirited chuckling may have indicated a uniform cleverness throughout the lame plot's dialog, but rarely rises to the level of hilarity a good comedy is supposed to provide. Only near the end, in the actual skating routines does the humor excel at invigorating the crowd, while a majority of the scenes beforehand demonstrate an under-rehearsed duo largely forsaking any synergy the script had called for between the two flamboyant leads. Credit the continual and baffling casting of Jon Heder in these lead comedic roles as one of the chief reasons much of the laughter rarely lifts off the ground. Ever since landing the iconic role in Napolean Dynamite, to which he played to a tee, producers have made the mistake in thinking Heder can actually act outside of the narrow dork he so readily defined in that indie smash hit, and every big budget comedy that has cast him in a primary role since has suffered for it. While not necessarily a poor casting choice to have him playing the uber-fairy skater Jimmy MacElroy, Heder simply cannot rise above his trite delivery to provide any sort of edgy humor in any scenes, that responsibility falls squarely on Mr. Will. Though admirably keeping any witty vulgarity flowing naturally as the macho, sex-addicted, drug-using figure skater, Ferrell's character feels too recycled from random other characters he's portrayed to create much of a genuine funniness, a far-cry from his more involved work with partner Adam Mckay (the more creatively average Talladega Nights). In the end the king of offbeat one liners and the charisma-less ultra dork are oddly enough upstaged by relative newcomer and gifted sideman Nick Swardson in an inspired and perceptive take on the stalking psychopath, demonstrating a hunger for comedic delivery that is all but noticeable throughout the majority of mediocrity.

Well a pretty cliché movie, was really looking forward to watching it and felt totally let down by ferrel. His acting seemed sub par and to be honest the whole movie just felt totally wrong. The movie was very cliché, much of it seemed ripped straight from the movie "Zoolander" now that is a funny movie. Don't get me wrong there are a few really funny scenes and many that will make you cringe but overall the was for me below average and didn't quite pull it off. This movie just seemed like ferrel tried to hard, and the entire movie seemed like he was trying to boost his own ego. My only recommendation is to wait for this movie to come out as a rental and save yourself some money.

Will Ferrell's comedy efforts fall into two categories; he's a gentle, sweet, mousy, befuddled man-child ("Elf," "Bewitched" and, to a certain extent, "Kicking & Screaming"), or he's a loud, drunken, usually half-naked idiotic lout ("Old School," "Anchorman," "Taladega Nights"). His newest film, "Blades of Glory" (a takeoff on the ripe-for-parody world of competitive figure skating), falls firmly into that second category. Ferrell plays Chazz Michael Michaels, a self-confessed sex addict ("I'm attracted to women," he flatly states to counselor Luke Wilson), who is also skating's resident bad boy rebel. Inebriated, cocky, unshaven and wild, Chazz makes women swoon and somehow convinces enough judges that his eclectic routines are works of art. In the opening scene, he flaunts his sexuality on the ice the way John Travolta did on the dance floor (well, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit), but he does win the gold medal in a Stockholm competition. But, just in case one thinks this film is just a tankful of Ferrell gas, there's another component – the kind and gentle Jimmy MacLeroy (Jon Heder, "Napoleon Dynamite," "Benchwarmers," "School For Scoundrels"), who was adopted by a ruthless billionaire (William Fitchner, "Crash," "The Longest Yard") and turned into a skating Ivan Drago. He, too earns enough points to claim a gold medal, but when the two are on the awards stand, they begin fighting, causing former "Knightrider" and "St. Elsewhere" veteran, William Daniels, to strip them of their medals and ban them from competing for life. Fortunately, a weird stalker finds a loophole in the banishment – while they cannot skate individually, they may team up and compete as a pair. Thus, the premise of two males who hate each other dancing about the ice is born. Sports stations and newspapers cannot get enough, but the current pairs' darlings, brother and sister team, Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg (Will Arnett and SNL's Amy Poehler), have no love for these rebels of the frozen rink, while undercutting their every move. With disgraced and loopy coach, Craig T. Nelson ("Coach"), putting them through their montage workouts (including attempting to solve the potentially-fatal "Iron Lotus"),this becomes very much like "Dodgeball" with the world championship coming down to these two teams. And while this is certainly no sophisticated Cary Grant screwball comedy, or a classic Preston Sturges film, or even a Three Stooges laugh-fest, there are enough genuine giggles for me to give it my personal thumbs up. Most of the yucks clearly come from Ferrell's alcoholic stumblings, but Heder has a few nice scenes, too, mostly playing of his character's effeminacy. Once again, my criteria for comedies is different than my scale for drama. Here, it's the laugh factor. "Blades of Glory" gets some cheap ones with some crude, sexual remarks and situations, but overall, fans of both Ferrell and Heder will no doubt enjoy this one. Pleasantly surprising, however, was the small but sweet performance of Jimmy's love interest, Katie Van Waldenberg (Jenna Fischer, "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," TV series, "The Office"). She adds a new dimension to what could have been a throwaway role.

First of all, a handful of questions...... What happened to subtle humor? Why do filmmakers like this think they have to kick you in the testicles to get a laugh, or is it just hilarious to them? Don't they ever have jokes that the audience has to use their brains to figure it out? Why does Hollywood put comedies down the gutter, film after film? Do they think "sex" is the only funny topic? In this typical crude, obnoxious, sex-obsessed comedy of today's world, the topic is ice skating and, of course, a big plug (if you see it that way) for same-sex pairings., Actually, story-wise - the film is a rip-off of Zoolander and Dodgeball, which were much funnier films, by the way. In this one "Chazz Michael Michaels"(Will Ferrell), a slob who proudly admits he's "a sex addict," and "Jimmy MacElroy" (Jon Holder),a pretty-boy small blonde guy who looks more the like the real-life thing, are both are thrown out of competitive ice skating when Ferrell starts a fight on the ice. Several years later, figure skating guru, "Coach" (John T.Neson) figures the boys could sneak back into competition by being pairs. Hey, whoever said you couldn't have two same-sex partners, he reasons? Of course, you know the guys will quickly evolve from stooges to champions. Along the way you get the same old/same old bathroom jokes and sight gags in today's comedies, meaning nonstop sex jokes, guys with their faces in the other's crotches, guys with their skates and other objects rammed into their groins, nonstop innuendos or gross-out scenes and generally low-life material we've come to expect from a Will Ferrell film. As for Holder, this is the first time I've seen him since "Napoleon Dynamite," and he's okay. I don't think he'll win any acting awards but at least he's isn't anywhere as offensive as Ferrell. Hey, I like dark humor. It can be very funny at times, but Ferrell's character overdoes it. Cut his crudeness and insults in half and you might have had a semi-decent movie. Yeah, I know the character he plays in here is supposed to be repulsive, but it's overplayed to the point of losing the humor. Stereotypes? I won't even get into the gay issue with this movie. How about the villains with the big German names (Von Waldenberg)? How long is Hollywood going to hang onto its hatred of Germans? Get over it. I was sorry to see real life skating star/announcer Scott Hamilton involved with sleaze like this. I thought he had more class. The same could be said for some famous other skaters of the past, but they only had cameo appearances. Finally, in this sex-sleaze "comedy," I see two of the writers were guys named Cox. That figures!

What a load of rubbish... this is up there with one of the worst films ever made (and without a doubt one of the worst "comedies" ever made). I just couldn't understand when we were meant to laugh... it was so cringeworthing bad it was getting embarrassing watching it. The worst thing as well is the fact that Will Farrell is a good actor and can be up with Stiller in the comedy film stakes and he's been given this kind of poor material. The acting throughout is good enoough... but the script and story just isn't enough to hold any interest. It's trying to be Kingpin (10/10) on Ice and fails miserably... It really astounds me and worries me that some 20% of people are giving this 10/10 for what is an appalling comedy... how can this compare to something like Dodgeball/Kingpin/Naked Gun etc etc? Sorry but can't find anything to give it higher than a 1/10 and the problem is, this is now about 3 turkey's Farrell has made now??? Where's he go from here as I certainly won't be bothering watching anymore of his "comedies".

Two skaters, Two bad actors, and 1 terrible script = Blades Of Glory. I have thought a LOT of times when I see a terrible movie, that it is definitely the worst movie ever made...well, after watching this, I now have a new #1. Will Ferrell's character does something out of the ordinary in this film, he likes to get drunk...wow who would have thought? Chazz Michael Michaels???, wow I'm thinking Will Ferrell came up with that all by himself. Everything he said was pure idiocy and far from funny, same goes for Heder. John, listen man, YOU ARE NOT FUNNY! Most of the people in the theater left before it was half over, leaving only a handful of people who were mostly sleeping or passed out from boredom. I fell asleep once and had a nightmare that someone was throwing shards of glass in my eyes, then I woke up and the movie was still going, then I silently started weeping to myself because it wasn't a nightmare at all, it was a comforting dream, the real nightmare was on the screen in front of us. I don't see how people involved in something like this can make large amounts of cash, and just like this movie, it's pointless. To save everyone time and money DON'T SEE THIS! Or, you can have the same affect at home like you just watched it. Go to the corner and stare at the wall for 2 hours, then take $10 out of your wallet and use it for toilet paper.