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Skating the hilarious fantastic, this is funniest film of the year
BLADES OF GLORY
Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon
Certificate 12a
THE blades are ice skates – not, one might think, the most promising of subjects for a major movie. How wrong can you be!
The theme of two rival aces who reluctantly team up to become the first “male-male” pair of figure skaters at the Canadian winter Olympics explodes as a riotous comedy with more laughs per minute than a joke factory on overtime.
We’re looking at Dumb and Dumber on ice here. On one side of the arena, macho, swaggering Chazz (Will Ferrell), taking to the rink dressed as a cowboy with a rock star routine that leaves hordes of female fans shrieking in his wake.
On the other side: former child prodigy Jimmy (Jon Heder), with delicate features, a mop of curly golden hair and a sensitive disposition.
It’s a hate-hate relationship from the start. The ill-matched pair find themselves disqualified for life for brawling on the podium when they share gold medals in a world championship leading up to the Olympics.
But that’s for solo effort. The rules say nothing about doubles, and their tough-talking coach (William Fichtner) persuades them to go for gold again – as partners.
They continue their feud as they train in a remote cold-storage plant in the wilds of Colorado, which is all they can afford. Their path to glory is dogged by a pair of jealous rivals (Will Arnett, Amy Poehler), using all the dirty tricks in the book to stop them competing.
The result is a hilarious sequence where Chazz is pursued through the streets of Toronto by his rival – both of them on ice skates – clunking and skidding through the traffic in one of the most unusual chase scenes you’ll see in a long time.
The dialogue itself skates on thin ice at times.
As Jimmy confesses to his girlfriend about his early training: “When I was nine my dad insisted on having me circumcised to minimise wind resistance!”
Outrageous, shamelessly politically incorrect and wickedly raunchy, this is one to mark up 10 points out of 10 for the funniest film of the year.
I actually wept tears of mirth. I hope you will, too. |
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