'Blades' Anything But Dull

It's not often that the big screen is graced with a story about one of the world's fiercest and most competitive sports: figure skating. While this may not really be the case, Will Ferrell and company make an attempt at showing the comedic side of the sport that is figure skating. "Blades of Glory" is an epic movie of two men's professional figure skaters who make a triumphant return to become champions after being banned by the same sport.

Will Ferrell, playing Chazz Michael Michaels, alongside rival Jimmy MacElroy, Jon Heder of "Napoleon Dynamite" fame, are the top two skaters in the sport with far different techniques as well as personalities. Michaels, a sex addict, uses his outrageous personality to win over fans while MacElroy is an engineered athlete, adopted by a billionaire bent on molding winter sport champions. The two meet up at the Stockholm Winter Games where they skate to a dual gold medal. Appalled over the results, the two become engaged in a physical fight that ends up causing them to be stripped of their medals and banned from singles men skating forever.

Both Michaels and MacElroy become outcasts after being exiled from the sport in which they made it big. While Michaels takes to playing the lead role in a children's ice show, and later gets firedd for being intoxicated, MacElroy takes up employment at a local skate shop. After an obsessive fan talks to MacElroy about returning to the sport in the pairs division thanks to a loophole in the rules, MacElroy seeks out a partner only to run into his archrival, Michaels. After a bit of convincing from MacElroy's longtime coach, played by Craig T. Nelson of the TV series "Coach," the enemies form the first male pairs team in figure skating history.

This sets the stage for the comedic team to enter into the training stage prior to competition. It is here that Heder is able to create and evolve not only his character, but also his comedic abilities. Mirroring each other, the duo train and live together going back and forth with cheap shots and humorous fights that make the movie into the true comedy it is.

Michaels and MacElroy find themselves up against the notoriously dominant pair of Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg. Stranz, played by Will Arnett of the TV series Arrested Development, and Fairchild, played by Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live, are a brother-sister duo who not only show characteristics of a borderline incestuous relationship, but are also the face of pairs figure skating.

Poehler is a successful character as the enemy sibling and skater, while Arnett really never receives the face time which he has been accustomed to in previous efforts.

The story then finds MacElroy becoming attracted to the third Van Waldenberg sibling, Katie, played by Jenna Fischer of "The Office."

Fresh off the successes of many shows and movies that made these actors and actresses famous, Ferrell is well supported with star names that mesh well, collaborating together nicely to help add laughs and personality to this flick. Filled with plenty of jokes and cheapshots at each other, Ferrell's performance overshadows Heder's, whose jokes and antics are merely second-tier banter. While every skater is outfitted with some ridiculous looking costume, "Blades" quickly becomes a no-holds-barred attempt at poking fun at this sometimes lackluster and mildly entertaining sport. In the midst of an obscene amount of commercial and corporate advertisements that laced the screen from top to bottom, the jokes are neverending, making up for the occasionally lacking acting.

This movie is a vintage Will Ferrell comedy, filled with laughs and yelling set in a crazy atmosphere that only gets more chaotic with the likes of the supporting cast. Ferrell's personal quick wits about himself as well as others set this story up for success that can go right on the shelf next to past comedic triumphs such as "Anchorman" and "Talladega Nights."