Blades of Glory | John Heder, Will Ferrell
Adrienne Huen
Entertainment Reporter
The world of professional figure skating will never be the same, thanks to Will Ferrell’s latest farce against sport’s beloved spandex and sequins wearing athletes.
Blades of Glory begins with a young and orphaned Jimmy MacElroy (John Heder, Napoleon Dynamite), skating around a frozen pond with his blond curls and wearing a pastel blue jumpsuit. Upon seeing his immense talents and potential on the ice, billionaire entrepreneur, and all around creepy guy, Darren MacElroy (William Fichtner, Prison Break) quickly adopts the young boy and grooms him into the perfect figure skating champion.
However, years later at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, Jimmy is forced to share the gold medal with his arch rival and womanizing booze hound Chad Michael Michaels (Ferrell). The duo’s hatred and jealously of the other immediately causes a public brawl, which results in both their medals being taken away and the devastating decision to ban both athletes from the men’s singles competition for life.
Three years later, Jimmy’s former coach (Craig T. Nelson), appropriately named Coach, tries to convince the duo to return to the ice as the first ever all male pairs team at the Winter Olympics. They reluctantly agree.
The film, directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon, was fun and entertaining, but lacked the side-splitting hilarity promised in the commercials and from both actors’ past projects.
Although Heder and Ferrell’s comedic chemistry was undeniable, Heder’s representation of a pastel loving feminine twit was more comical than Ferrell’s overweight sex addict.
With cameos by legendary skaters Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Nancy Kerrigan, Sasha
Cohen, Brian Boitano and Scott Hamilton, and the over-the-top costumes and routines, the film has all the ingredients of a box office hit.
Even though it’s apparent this movie will never win an Oscar, it’s sure to win the hearts of both frat boys and figure skating fanatics alike.
