If a picture can speak a thousand words, just think of the emotional depths a delicately choreographed ice-dance can dredge. And, if you don’t think Will Ferrell and Jon Heder mincing around in spandex all-in-ones can move you to tears, you clearly haven’t seen their crotch-interlocking scissor slide.
Jon Heder, of Napoleon Dynamite fame, plays Jimmy MacElroy, an Olympic figure skater whose rise to athletic fame began when he was plucked from an orphanage by his domineering coach/foster father. He eats, breathes and sleeps figure skating and performs with the kind of feminine grace and technical accuracy that can only be gained from the finest of montage scenes.
Chazz Michael Michaels, on the other hand, is a chubby, pelvic thrusting, whiskey swilling, sex-god on ice. He’s a loose canon, a lone ranger, a wild pony… “Chazz Michael Michaels is figure skating”.
When a podium cat-fight gets the two rivals stripped of their medals and banned from their category, they find out their only way back onto the ice is to become the first male-male figure skating duo.
Putting everyone’s favourite Anchorman in shiny lycra, on ice and in the campest recognised sport on earth was a stroke of genius. Ferrell is hilarious as Chazz; he and Heder pull off some of the most wince-worthy slapstick and silliest banter you can imagine. Look out for Chazz’s man-boob jiggling rendition of the Black-Eyed Peas' “My Humps” and Heder’s tender manipulation of a peacock glove-puppet. To quote an illustrious critic:
“It’s like Zoolander on ice” (Dan, lastminute.com newsletter manager).
An accolade the film truly deserves. Blades of Glory will reach the silver screens of the UK on April 6th where you can see it at a Vue cinema for just £4.25.
Sara Sha'ath
That's ever-so-slightly misleading, dontchathink?
The £4.25 offer doesn't apply on April 6th, or any Friday.
Posted by: Aurelius Trebb | 02/04/2007 at 12:27 PM