Nuts On Ice

Rating: 7/10 (16 September 2007)

If you have ever watched a men's figure-skating routine and wondered how someone could not feel challenged in their masculinity standing in front of thousands of people wearing what amounts to frilly leotards, then "Blades Of Glory" was made for you.
It's the story of Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) and Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell), rival figure skaters who get each other thrown out of men's singles competition. But nothing prevents them from returning as pairs skaters, skating with each other, in fact, as encouraged by Jimmy's former coach (Craig T. Nelson).
Before you can say "Brokeback Rink", it should be said that the homosexual context, with one glorious exception when Jimmy and Chazz perform their first routine, is somewhat minimized in favor of character-based comedy. Jimmy is a hopeless goodie-goodie, while Chazz is described by sports anchor Jim Lampley as "an ice-devouring sex tornado" claiming carnal knowledge with both Michelle Kwan and Oksana Baiul and filling his programs with crotch grabs and thinly-disguised references to his untamed libido.
"That was disgusting," Jimmy tells Chazz after watching one such performance.
"That, young man, is how babies are made," Chazz purrs.
As Will Ferrell comedies go, "Blades Of Glory" isn't the borderline classic "Anchorman" was, but it is smart, stylish, and funny all the way through, something that can not be said of many of his other, more highly touted flicks ("Old School", "Talladega Nights"). Chazz may be a slight variation on the Neil Diamond character Ferrell played on "Saturday Night Live", but as Ferrell develops him in what appear to be largely improvised scenes, Chazz emerges as a character of enough depth so as to sustain your interest over 90 minutes.
Also helping is Heder carrying more than his share of the picture. "Blades Of Glory" is really as much about Jimmy than about Chazz, and Heder gives his straight-man part enough unique idiocy to sustain and even enhance our enjoyment of "Blades Of Glory" when Chazz is not around.
Add to that Lampley and Scott Hamilton's game impersonations of themselves as skating commentators (Lampley: "Chazz Michael Michael has dominated this audience like a stack of classic Euro-porn"); the goofy nemesis of rival pairs skaters Fairchild and Stranz Van Waldenberg (Amy Poehler and Will Arnett), who take to the ice dressed as Vanilla Ice rappers, Marilyn Monroe, and JFK; and over-the-top costumes and CGI effects, and you get a film that amuses on multiple levels all the way through.
It's not sharp comedy, Will Ferrell plays too much for the cheap seats for that to ever be true, and there are only two gut-buster sequences to speak of (one being Chazz and Jimmy's first pairs performance, the other involving a drunken Chazz at a children's ice show). But you walk away from "Blades Of Glory" with no thought other than wanting the DVD, thus making it a perfect escape on ice.