Film Review: Blades of Glory

Director: Will Speck and Josh Gordon

A film about the curious world of ice skating, this was Ferrell's first film after Talladega Nights which had so much expectation after the success he had playing Ron Burgundy. Here he teams up with Jon Heder who made his name in the excellent Napoleon Dynamite, looking quite different here.

Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell) and Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) are rival ice skaters who compete in the singles who end up tied for Gold at the World Winter Sports Games. They end up fighting on the podium which leads to the Games mascot being set on fire and are then stripped of their medals and banned from the sport for life. An obsessive fan of Jimmy spots a loophole three years later that means that he can compete in the doubles but then realises his best chance for a partner is rival Chazz.

Add caption

The film satisfies its run-time with enough jokes, Ferrell is comfortable in this sort of character and it wouldn't surprise me if he ad-libbed some of the jokes himself. Jon Heder seems less comfortable in a more obvious comedic role to his previous roles but takes to playing the effeminate Jimmy quite well. The plot itself is quite formulaic but this doesn't detract from the jokes themselves which are normally at the character's expense rather than poking fun at the world of ice skating which I'm sure is a very serious intense sport.

An easy film to watch if you happen to come across the DVD, Ferrell has made better films and has certainly made worse.

2/4 some genuinely hilarious moments but they are few and far between