Posted: 04/01/2007

Blades of Glory

(2007)

by Clint Fletcher

Man, Will Ferrell is on a roll! First, Talladega Nights, then Stranger than Fiction (which I’ve heard nothing but good things about), and now this! Aside from Talladega and Elf, this is the funniest movie he’s done to date.

A great concept—a male figure skating team—and a clever title can go a long way, and to be honest, I thought maybe that was as far as this project would go. Like many of my peers, I feared this flick wouldn’t have the humor to back up its marketing campaign. Boy, was I wrong. The writers managed to cram so many classic jokes into a 90-minute screenplay that you barely have time to breathe. Featuring an awesome cast, with some old-school comedians as well as new, everyone has a few scenes to shine and show their comedic chops. John Heder—who’s made mostly stink bombs since his Napoleon Dynamite success—is a suitable sidekick for Ferrell to play off of, elevating Heder to a level of funny that he may never achieve in his career again (but I hope he does—I’m a fan). Extra kudos go out to actors Craig T. Nelson, Jenna Fischer and William Fichtner for doing extremely well in their first broad comedy. And I give the award for best cameo of the year to Luke Wilson as the leader of a sex addict group.

But it will come as no surprise when I say that Will Ferrell runs the show here, and without him, this movie would be just another sub-par SNL flick. You can tell many of the jokes he created himself, but the best Ferrell movies are when the actor is kept somewhat restrained by the filmmakers within the context of the story. Too much free reign given to this man has proved to be a bad thing, with duds like Kicking and Screaming and Bewitched. But thankfully, he is kept well intact this time around, and I never once got the sense that a scene was dragged on longer than it should’ve due to improvisation or some other illogical nonsense. The movie is very well-paced and the jokes are as constant as an episode of South Park or Family Guy. My only minor complaint is that the movie got a little too goofy for my taste for about 20 minutes before the end (the rocket skates finale and bad CGI). But for the most part, the skate scenes are handled very well, accompanied by perfect music and costume decisions for the competitions and most of the actors doing their own stunts.

Whether you’re a fan of Will Ferrell or not, it shouldn’t make much of a difference with Blades of Glory. It’s that funny. Go see it sometime this month with a crowd while you still can. Not only is it the best comedy of this year thus far, but rumor has it this will be the only Ferrell comedy we’ll get in 2007. Boooooo!

Clint Fletcher is a film reviewer and filmmaker who lives in a darkened theatre near you.

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