Yes, 'Blades of Glory' is Just One Big Gay Joke

News Type: Opinion — Thu Mar 29, 2007 4:07 PM EDT

entertainment, movies, will-ferrell, blades-of-glory, review, jon-heder, jenna-fischer, amy-poehler

Will Ferrell and Jon Heder star in Blades of Glory, where they awkwardly touch each other a lot.

Jenna Fischer also plays a minor role in Blades of Glory. She gets her own picture because I love her. Call me, Jenna.

If you've been watching the non-stop commercials for the new Will Ferrell / Jon Heder comedy Blades of Glory and thinking to yourself "I bet that movie is just one gay joke after another," then you're absolutely right.

Blades of Glory chronicles the rise and fall and rise of figure skating stars Chazz Michael Michaels (Ferrell) and Jimmy MacElroy (Heder). There's not really much to say about the premise that you can't get from the 30 second trailer - the two are the greatest in their sport until they get in a fight during an awards ceremony and are banned from men's figure skating. 3 1/2 years later they learn they can compete as a pairs team and they do so reluctantly, while Will Ferrell makes a lot of homophobic gestures with his face. There's also the brother/sister Van Waldenberg skating team (played by real life husband and wife Will Arnett and Amy Poehler) that go to extreme lengths to stop Chazz and Jimmy from stealing their glory.

Blades of Glory is okay, it's no Anchorman, but (thankfully), it's no Bewitched, either. It's certainly funny, but Ferrell has set the bar of wacky comedy pretty high for himself, and this installment just doesn't quite measure all the way up to it. How many times can you watch a guy touch awkwardly touch another guy or hit him the balls, anyway?

In fact, how many times can you watch Will Ferrell in a movie where his character is the self-proclaimed legend of some sport, watch him screw it up, and then try to rebuild himself to his former glory. Also, throw in a line like "This hairbrush is made from rare whale bone" about every five minutes or a "Looking's free, but touching's gonna cost ya" while zoomed in on Ferrell's beer belly for good measure. It does deliver the quick laugh, but the staying power of it diminishes the more it's used.

Given that Ferrell's next movie is about him being an NBA great, I would really, really like to see him lay off the "same premise, different sport" movies for awhile.

Don't get me wrong, I laughed in this movie. I laughed a lot. However, a combination of having seen Ferrell do better comedy, getting tired of the same premise/gay jokes, and despising Jon Heder led this to not be a great movie for me.

The real pleasure of this movie was that the sweet, sweet Jenna Fischer from NBC's The Office was in the movie. Fischer plays the sweet little sister of the Van Waldenberg family. People, I could watch Jenna Fischer read entries out of an encyclopedia for 90 minutes and declare it a cinematic masterpiece before demanding a sequel... but that's just me, I'm insane.

Stay midway through the end credits to see a bonus scene with Nick Swardson, who plays a stalker of Jon Heder's character.

Grade: B-
Trailer
Blades of Glory hit theaters Friday, March 30th.

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