Absurdly funny movie

Rating: 8/10 (24 July 2007)

This is the funniest movie I've seen at the cinema this year-it's funny in an absurd way. The premise of the movie is simple yet absurd...two brilliant male ice-skaters tie for a competition gold medal and end up fighting as a result. They are both banned from the sport for life. Due to a loop-hole they can skate competitively again...in pairs skating. You can guess what transpires here.
The feuding skaters feud, no doubt, due to their completely different personalities. Chaz, played by Will Ferrell, is a macho, testosterone fuelled sex-addict with a butch skating style. Jimmy, played by "Napolean Dynamite's" lead, Jon Heder, is an effeminate and graceful skater. Much of the humour involves them having stupid school-boy like exchanges.
Another big factor in the comedy is how 'unseemly' it is for two male skaters to skate as a pair. Chaz can't seem to hide his disgust at some of the positions he and Jimmy have to get into for their art.
One thing that I got great enjoyment from was the choice of music-some beautiful music ("Time to say goodbye") to introduce Jimmy, and the macho rock of "Stroke me" for Chaz. And Queen's classic "Flash" gets used to great effect too.
Early on, there is some commentary of the two guys skating which would be very familiar in style and substance to that provided here in Australia by Roy and H.G. in their brilliant Sydney Olympics 'parallel' commentary for their short series "The Dream" (should be on DVD, I think). Blades Of Glory is like what a sport would look like IF what Roy and H.G. described was actually accurate. For Roy and H.G. fans, you will see in the movie plenty of "battered sav" and "I'm a princess" skating moves.
The film does feature some adult content, so is probably a bit too risqué for pre-teens. One of the highlights of the movie is a 'legendary' skating move called "The iron lotus". It is a truly stunning set piece & good for some Holy Grail type laughs.
A competing pair also provides some laughs from left field-their last skating routine in the movie is right out of the Roy and H.G. handbook of interpretive dance!