BLADES OF GLORY

“I put the 'bone' in Zamboni.”

You know what you're going to get with a Will Ferrell movie, most of the time. Sometimes he surprises us with deep movies, such as last year's STRANGER THAN FICTION or the little-seen and underrated MELINDA AND MELINDA. Most of the time, though, he brings to the table stupid, irreverent, and seriously funny characters, such as Ron Burgundy, Franz Liebkind (THE PRODUCERS) and Ricky Bobby. And when he does, he almost always delivers.

As Chazz Michael Michaels (tell me that's not the greatest name ever), Ferrell plays a sex-addicted slob of a man's man, the best figure skater in the world. His competition is Napoleon Dynamite, I mean Jimmy MacElroy (it's played by that stupid guy from NAPOLEON DYNAMITE and THE BENCHWARMERS), a slightly feminine figure skater who opts for gracefulness and beauty rather than the improvisation and sex-fueled techniques that Michael Michaels uses.

The story really starts when Michael Michaels and MacElroy tie for the gold medal at the Olympics, and then through a series of unfortunate events, are both banned from men's singles' skating for life. But, as one random-as-hell stalker of Jimmy figures out, the boys are actually not banned from men's doubles events.

And of course, hilarity ensues.

One of the highlights of the film is the training sequence. As much as I love me some ROCKY, did the Italian Stallion ever have decapitations, Napolean Dynamite, hilarious homo eroticism, and Pam from THE OFFICE? Yeah, I forgot to mention her. Jenna Fischer, America's favorite girl-next-door from America's favorite comedy, plays the love interest of Jimmy, as well as the sister of World Pairs Championship winners Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg (played by Will Arnett—you may remember him as Gob on ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, and Amy Poehler).

As mainstream comedies go, this is pretty hilarious. Not as funny as say, ANCHORMAN or BORAT!, but definitely on par with such Frat Pack works as OLD SCHOOL, DODGEBALL, and WEDDING CRASHERS. I was pleasantly surprised by it, considering it's basically Will Ferrell re-hashing an old character (the stupid man-child who is high on himself) and Napolean Dynamite. It has some dry patches, but when Ferrell is given free reigns and him and Napolean are on-screen together, the movie works. Basically, if you want to turn your brain off and have some stomach-hurting laughs, go see BLADES OF GLORY.

B+