Blades of Glory (2007)

Directed by Josh Gordon & Will Speck
Written by Jeff Cox & Craig Cox and Josh Altschuler & Dave Krinsky

Okay, so the writing credits right there should tell you what type of movie this is, it was based on a story by the Cox Brothers and Busy Phillips (aka Kim from Freeks and Geeks!) and then retooled unimaginable times by all these writers, most likely to write Will Ferrell more jokes. Still, I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would, almost as much as Talladega Nights.

The story, as many of you know, is two disgraced skaters, Chazz Michael Michael (Will Ferrell) and Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) have been banned from figure skating for life after a brawl on the ice, putting Chazz in a children's On Ice show, and forcing Jimmy to work in an ice skate shop where he is constantly disrespected. Their coach (Craig T. Nelson with hilarious hair) has the idea to put the two together for pairs competition, since there is no rule against it.

The story from here is pretty much standard, with the two of them only agreeing to such a scenario because they can't do anything else. The begin training with choreographer Jesse (Romany Malco in an unusual role) to come up with the most insane routine anyone has ever seen, because after all, most pairs are a guy and a girl, and they can't do the things two guys can (literally, lol), in the hopes that they can capture the gold together. The story has the same plot points and comedy as most Will Ferrell movies, which is welcome, since I'm not a big Heder fan to begin with. But here, his style of comedy only works because he has Will Ferrell putting his best foot forward in creating yet another of his ultimately ridiculous characters.

The comedy exists in the scenes themselves, and mainly in the mannerisms of the characters, and the brother and sister team of Stranz (Will Arnett) and Fairchild (Amy Poehler) Van Waldenberg plays a good role in the creation of the funny moments. The comedy is super ridiculous, much like Anchorman and Talladega Nights before it, and somehow they take all the stupid trailer moments to shame and save all the actually hilarious moments for the movie, even though a lot of it is Will Ferrell's typical humor. (*yelling on the phone* If we went to a costume party and went as Batman and Robin, I'd be Robin! That's what you mean to me!)

It ended up being a pleasant surprise, one I didn't really expect out of a comedy starring these two knuckleheads, but hey, it always seems funnier when you didn't expect it going in, which is why I think I liked Talladega Nights so much.

7.7/10