Casual Cogitations

It's almost become a personal joke that every time a new Will Ferrell movie comes out, I want to see it but have nothing to say afterwards. I'm not quite sure exactly why this is; I think he's a brilliant comedian, and most of the movies he's made since he became an A-lister have been consistently good. But one supposes that in the world of comedy, you really don't want to know much more than whether or not it's worth watching; spoiling the set-ups (much less the punchlines) kind of ruins the experience for readers, unless you have some deep or profound insights about them.

I like Will Ferrell. He makes me laugh. Lots. It's rare that I don't laugh lots when I watch a Will Ferrell movie, save for Stranger Than Fiction, which can bite me. Talledega Night? Lots of laughing. Anchorman? Uhuh. And now there's this movie. I laughed at it. Lots.

Blades of Glory is very funny, and the humor is what you'd expect from Ferrell's comedies. Did you like those other films I listed in the paragraph above? Then you're probably going to like this one. The jokes are sophomoric, but funny and occasionally hyper-bizarre, e.g. the final scene. Gross-out humor and simple parodies, which sometimes seem to be overtaking the comedy genre in Hollywood, are largely missing, save for a surprise decapitation scene. That by the way, I laughed at huge.

Though there aren't as many gut-busting laughs as I expected, Blades is in the "sports underdog" tradition, with a strong enough story to carry the movie in between jokes. There are plenty of laughs; they just come more from character interaction and the inherent absurdities of competitive figure skating's pomp and circumstance than from typical Will Ferrell gags.

Looking at this cast, even if the writing had been cribbed straight from a treatise on post-modern interpretations of Biblical dispensationalism, there's a strong likelihood this movie would have still been funny. Ferrell, Heder, Arnett, Poehler, and Jenna Fischer—an All-Star lineup and each are on their game. Heder in particular shone, changing up his usual slack-jawed comic presentation, to a straight set-up man, a fine complement to his co-star's Alpha Male routine. Arnett and Poehler (married as they are) delivered, and any time an Arrested Development alum gets work is fine by me. Jenna Fischer is, of course, awesome, so need to go into much more depth here. Finally, Ferrell. He's certainly got his machismo-laden idiot schtick down cold, and Chazz Michael Michaels is pretty much Ricky Bobby with long hair and form-fitting sequins, and it's inspired, but at some point, homeboy's going to have to mix it up a bit.

No matter how good the actors are, Blades of Glory would have fallen flat if they'd gotten the figure skating wrong. Fortunately, they got it right. Oh, so right. It's astonishing no one's made a comedy about figure skating before. I can't think of another sport with as much built-in comedy.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

In this era of political correctness, it would be easy to take offense to this movie's central comedic premise: that seeing two guys in spandex embracing, twirling, and lifting each other is funny. However, for a film whose main joke relies on the "ickiness" of one man touching another, it certainly celebrates the journey Michaels and MacElroy take in overcoming their hatred and hang-ups—finally giving themselves over to the intimacy of pairs skating. As a metaphor for becoming comfortable in your own skin, nothing quite beats spandex. Blades of Glory is, at heart, a buddy movie—a buddy movie where one buddy hoists the other buddy up in the air by the crotch. What can I say? That's figure skating.

Anyway, to sum up: Blades of Glory = funny.

These suckas are as cool as ice.