Blades of Glory

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Blades of Glory

Official movie poster
Directed by Josh Gordon
Will Speck
Produced by Ben Stiller
Stuart Cornfeld
John Jacobs
Written by Story:
Jeff Cox &
Craig Cox &
Busy Philipps
Screenplay:
Jeff Cox &
Craig Cox
and
John Altschuler &
Dave Krinsky
Starring Will Ferrell
Jon Heder
Will Arnett
Amy Poehler
William Fichtner
Jenna Fischer
Romany Malco
Nick Swardson
Rob Corddry
Craig T. Nelson
Music by Theodore Shapiro
Cinematography Stefan Czapsky
Editing by Rick Pearson
Max Coyne
Studio MTV Films
Distributed by DreamWorks
Release date(s) March 30, 2007
Running time 93 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $53 million[1]
Gross revenue $145,708,642

Blades of Glory is a 2007 American comedy film directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, and starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder. The movie was released on March 29, 2007 by DreamWorks and MTV Films. It was released on DVD and HD DVD on August 28, 2007 and released on Blu-ray Disc on May 20, 2008.

Contents

[edit] Plot

At the World Winter Sport Games, rival men's singles skaters Chazz Michael Michaels, a skillful skater but raunchy sex addict and Jimmy MacElroy, a talented, effeminate skater tie for gold and an argument ensues on the awards podium which develops into a fight. As a result they are stripped of their medals, and banned from men's singles competition. Jimmy's competitive adoptive father, billionaire Darren MacElroy, immediately disowns him and leaves him on the side of the road.

Three and a half years later, Jimmy is working at a winter sporting goods store and gets demoted to sorting stock when he ties a child‘s skating boot extremely tight. Chazz is fired from a children’s skating show for having a drunken stupor on stage and has gained a lot of weight. Jimmy's stalker Hector tells him of a loophole in the ban allowing him to compete in pair skating. Jimmy contacts his old coach, Robert, but is unable to find a partner. Jimmy's search for a partner leads him to Chazz, and Robert convinces the two to skate as a same-sex pairs team, because the regulations fail to state the genders of the pairs.

The reigning U.S. national pairs champions, brother and sister Stranz (Will Arnett) and Fairchild (Amy Poehler) van Waldenberg, see the new pair as a threat and conspire against them. The pair convince their sister Katie (Jenna Fischer), whom they often take advantage of by reminding her that their parents died taking Katie to skating practice, to spy on the duo. In the process, Katie becomes acquainted with Jimmy and they develop a relationship. Although Chazz and Jimmy are initially disgusted by each other, they eventually develop a friendship. They compete at the United States Figure Skating Championships and earn a chance to compete at the Winter Sport Games.

Chazz and Jimmy’s coach informs them that to win, they will need to perform a technique that has never been performed successfully: The Iron Lotus, an extremely complicated maneuver that Robert developed years ago. However, it is also dangerous: the only attempt of the maneuver was in North Korea and resulted in the man decapitating the woman with his skate blade. Nonetheless, they decide to attempt it as Robert is convinced that two males would be better suited for the move. Fairchild commands Katie to disrupt the duo by having sex with Chazz, threatening to harm Jimmy if Katie does not comply. Katie invites Chazz to her room, and tries to seduce him. Chazz refuses, but cannot resist groping her chest. Jimmy witnesses this and is outraged at Chazz's and Katie's betrayals.

The next day, Chazz and Jimmy are both kidnapped and restrained, by Stranz and Fairchild. Katie gets tired of her siblings and accepts that their parents weren't properly safe while driving. While handcuffing Jimmy in a bathroom, Fairchild reveals that she and Stranz commanded Katie to have sex with Chazz yet she could not go through with it. Chazz escapes but is pursued by Stranz through Montreal on ice and then through streets and stores. He tries to shoot Chazz with a crossbow, but accidentally hits the Winter Sport Games Mascot, Snowflake. Jimmy also escapes.

Stranz and Fairchild perform their routine, a dramatization of the "Forbidden Romance" of JFK and Marilyn Monroe. Both Chazz and Jimmy arrive in the ice rink just in time to compete. Chazz and Jimmy reconcile quickly and begin their routine, which has a science fiction theme. Fairchild, seeing the two doing well, throws pearls onto the ice. Chazz trips over a pearl and breaks his ankle, which renders him unable to perform his role in the Iron Lotus. Jimmy then offers to switch places with him. Although they have never practiced the other's roles, they perform it perfectly. Jimmy and Chazz win the competition, Jimmy reconciles with Katie, and Stranz and Fairchild are arrested due to the kidnappings and Snowflake‘s shooting. Stranz and Fairchild begin arguing, then inexplicably kiss each other incestuously. Jimmy and Chazz receive the gold medal and fly off into the sky through rockets on their skates. While the credits roll, Hector is seen playing with dolls of himself, Jimmy and Chazz.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Real skaters on set

1980 Olympian Lisa Marie Allen also appears in the film as the blond "Sweater Mom" who gets licked on the face by Will Ferrell's character during his Stockholm solo.

[edit] Production

All of the scenes at the United States Figure Skating Championships and World Wintersport Games were shot at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. The stadium used for the outside shoots is the unique Montreal Olympic Stadium, built for the 1976 Olympics. The outdoor chase scenes were also shot on-location in Montreal. The building used for athlete housing in Montreal was the unique Habitat 67, built for Expo 67.

The film was delayed for a small undetermined period of time when Jon Heder broke his ankle while doing a skating program for the film.[2]

Jon Heder's character answers a reporter's question in Japanese. Heder speaks fluent Japanese, having spent two years in Japan as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

[edit] Reception

The film had favorable reviews, scoring 69% "Fresh" in Rotten Tomatoes, and the critics' consensus was that "Blades of Glory successfully milks its one-joke premise into a feature-length comedy".[1]

The movie grossed $33,014,202 on its opening weekend in March 30 — April 1 with 3,372 theaters, averaging $9,790 per screen, beating out Disney's Meet the Robinsons to be the #1 film. It made $22.5 million in its second weekend, losing only 32% of its audience and retaining the #1 spot. As of December 3, 2007 the film has made $118,245,842 in America and $26,264,403 in the foreign market place. Its worldwide tally is $145,708,642.

The Monthly critic Luke Davies accepted the film as a fun romp, comparing it to Will Ferrell's previous movies Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and wrote positively of Ferrell's performance, describing that "there is a parodic exhilaration to everything Ferrell does; there's always the sense that any scene is precariously close to being a blooper reel." However, Davies conceded that, like the other two films, the plot was "formulaic ... [with] an obviousness to the set-ups, a no-nonsense compression, a sometimes clunky transition from one sequence to the next" but that it was the film's ability to "venture to fantastically absurd places - to set aside the rapid and hokey forward movement - and there to idle in neutral, in zones of pure comic exploration" and offer "moments of expansive hilarity ... that made the films worthwhile." Davies concluded that "Blades of Glory remains completely deadpan. Everything is self-knowing, a wink at the audience, and cheap shots are made only at the expense of the characters" and that "the film has warmth, rather than just being a series of high-grade lowbrow sketches and gags" due to "the protagonists [ability to] inhabit and fill their world, rather than come up against it, enhanc[ing] the comedy."[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Blades of Glory". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=bladesofglory.htm. 
  2. ^ "Jon Heder Shoots "Blades of Glory" With Broken Ankle - Starpulse Entertainment News Blog". http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2006/04/07/jon_heder_shoots_blades_of_glory_with_br/. 
  3. ^ ""Mind Bottling: Will Speck & Josh Gordon’s "Blades of Glory"". The Monthly. http://www.themonthly.com.au/film-luke-davies-mind-bottling-will-speck-amp-josh-gordon-s-039blades-glory039-567?page=0%2C1. 

[edit] External links

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MTV Films

Joe's Apartment (1996) · Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) · Dead Man on Campus (1998) · Varsity Blues (1999) · 200 Cigarettes (1999) · Election (1999) · The Wood (1999) · The Original Kings of Comedy (2000) · Save the Last Dance (2001) · Pootie Tang (2001) · Orange County (2002) · Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) · Crossroads (2002) · Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat (2002) · Jackass: The Movie (2002) · The Fighting Temptations (2003) · Tupac: Resurrection (2003) · The Perfect Score (2004) · Napoleon Dynamite (2004) · Hustle & Flow (2005) · Coach Carter (2005) · Murderball (2005) · The Longest Yard (2005) · Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005) · Æon Flux (2005) · Jackass Number Two (2006) · All You've Got (2006) · Freedom Writers (2007) · Blades of Glory (2007) · Beneath (2007) · How She Move (2008) · Stop-Loss (2008) · Dance Flick (2009) · Love (2010)
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