Movie Review Black Los Angeles

BlackNLA Movie Reviews

*****THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*****

by Edwardo Jackson

BIASES: Early 30s black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare

BLADES OF GLORY (PG-13)

MOVIE BIASES: Will Ferrell + sports x Napoleon Dynamite = pre-sold.

MAJOR PLAYERS: Will Ferrell (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby), Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Will Arnett (Let's Go to Prison), Amy Poehler (Mean Girls), and Jenna Fischer (TV's "The Office")

When elegant, peacock-prancing, golden boy Jimmy MacElroy (Heder) ties for gold with "ice skating's back door lover"/"sex tornado" bad boy Chazz Michael Michaels (Ferrell) in the singles men's skating competition at the World Wintersports Championship, sparks fly - literally. Their oil-and-water competitive disdain for each other turns into an on-ice brouhaha that gets them both banned for life from singles competition skating. Three and a half years later, on the cusp of the next World Championships in Montreal, Jimmy's former coach (Craig T. Nelson) rallies the down-on-their-luck opponents to exploit a loophole in their lifetime ban: they can skate as a pair - but only if they can get over their professional and personal dislike for each other. Standing in their way are the creepy reigning champs, brother-sister doubles team of Stranz and Fairchild van Waldenberg (Arnett & Poehler).

Fitting as well (and ungainly) as a skating leotard on Ferrell's flabby, hairy body, "Blades" "kicks some ice," mostly thanks to the inspired pairing of Heder and Ferrell in a most pleasantly ridiculous, sketch comedy of a setup. The obvious homoeroticism is played all the way for laughs, with the first male-male couples team in history doing stunts no other pairing has ever - or would ever want to have - done. The script is as passive as an offshore shell company, serving as an excuse for its gifted leads to ad-lib ad nauseum. Well, that would be more in Ferrell's wheelhouse, as Heder's Jimmy, all feathers and pastels, has been so Todd Marinoviched all his life, it's been micromanaged around skating worse than an Eastern Bloc gymnast around a balance beam. Heder cranks up the naivete, the pitch of his voice, and he even gets to dance - which we all know is right up his nerdy little alley. Ferrell in a fey, ill-fitting skating outfit is horrifically comedic enough for the price of admission alone. Probably the pudgiest, most self-delusional skater in history, Ferrell's Chazz is a leather and black hat-wearing, crotch-grabbing "tsunami of swagger," gleefully rolling around in what Ferrell likes to call in some of his most enjoyable characters (like Ron Burgundy and George Bush) the air of "unearned confidence, just really brash and cocky with kind of an undercurrent of complete insecurity." Enough said - laughter, start your engines (oops - wrong movie, but you get the point), I mean skates!

Where the movie does fall down (come on, it's a skating movie - I had to do it) some is in story. There is none. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But then this basically becomes a "Saturday Night Live" sketch stretched over 93 minutes (as some other critics have complained). I'm not coming to this for story - I mean, I gave
"Talladega Nights" @@@@. But even that movie had a tissue paper of a plot. Writers Jeff & Craig Cox and directors Will Speck & Josh Gordon have included plenty of other comic touches to distract from this flaw, however, including famed, distinguished sportscaster Jim Lampley on announcer's steroids (he calls Chazz a "sex tornado" and the foster kid Jimmy "skating's Little Orphan Awesome") and our heroes' over the top need to compete at EVERYTHING; they couldn't agree that water is wet if they were swimming in the ocean. All in all, "Blades" skates by on sass and laughs.

@@@ REELS
(THREE REELS)
It's pretty hot – go give it a shot.

Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at EJAce1@gmail.com!

Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com




			BlackNLA Movie Reviews ***THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*** by Edwardo Jackson BIASES: Early 30s black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare BLADES OF GLORY (PG-13) MOVIE BIASES: Will Ferrell + sports x Napoleon Dynamite = pre-sold. MAJOR PLAYERS: Will Ferrell (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby), Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Will Arnett (Let's Go to Prison), Amy Poehler (Mean Girls), and Jenna Fischer (TV's "The Office") When elegant, peacock-prancing, golden boy Jimmy MacElroy (Heder) ties for gold with "ice skating's back door lover"/"sex tornado" bad boy Chazz Michael Michaels (Ferrell) in the singles men's skating competition at the World Wintersports Championship, sparks fly - literally. Their oil-and-water competitive disdain for each other turns into an on-ice brouhaha that gets them both banned for life from singles competition skating. Three and a half years later, on the cusp of the next World Championships in Montreal, Jimmy's former coach (Craig T. Nelson) rallies the down-on-their-luck opponents to exploit a loophole in their lifetime ban: they can skate as a pair - but only if they can get over their professional and personal dislike for each other. Standing in their way are the creepy reigning champs, brother-sister doubles team of Stranz and Fairchild van Waldenberg (Arnett & Poehler). Fitting as well (and ungainly) as a skating leotard on Ferrell's flabby, hairy body, "Blades" "kicks some ice," mostly thanks to the inspired pairing of Heder and Ferrell in a most pleasantly ridiculous, sketch comedy of a setup. The obvious homoeroticism is played all the way for laughs, with the first male-male couples team in history doing stunts no other pairing has ever - or would ever want to have - done. The script is as passive as an offshore shell company, serving as an excuse for its gifted leads to ad-lib ad nauseum. Well, that would be more in Ferrell's wheelhouse, as Heder's Jimmy, all feathers and pastels, has been so Todd Marinoviched all his life, it's been micromanaged around skating worse than an Eastern Bloc gymnast around a balance beam. Heder cranks up the naivete, the pitch of his voice, and he even gets to dance - which we all know is right up his nerdy little alley. Ferrell in a fey, ill-fitting skating outfit is horrifically comedic enough for the price of admission alone. Probably the pudgiest, most self-delusional skater in history, Ferrell's Chazz is a leather and black hat-wearing, crotch-grabbing "tsunami of swagger," gleefully rolling around in what Ferrell likes to call in some of his most enjoyable characters (like Ron Burgundy and George Bush) the air of "unearned confidence, just really brash and cocky with kind of an undercurrent of complete insecurity." Enough said - laughter, start your engines (oops - wrong movie, but you get the point), I mean skates! Where the movie does fall down (come on, it's a skating movie - I had to do it) some is in story. There is none. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But then this basically becomes a "Saturday Night Live" sketch stretched over 93 minutes (as some other critics have complained). I'm not coming to this for story - I mean, I gave "Talladega Nights" @@@@. But even that movie had a tissue paper of a plot. Writers Jeff & Craig Cox and directors Will Speck & Josh Gordon have included plenty of other comic touches to distract from this flaw, however, including famed, distinguished sportscaster Jim Lampley on announcer's steroids (he calls Chazz a "sex tornado" and the foster kid Jimmy "skating's Little Orphan Awesome") and our heroes' over the top need to compete at EVERYTHING; they couldn't agree that water is wet if they were swimming in the ocean. All in all, "Blades" skates by on sass and laughs. @@@ REELS (THREE REELS) It's pretty hot – go give it a shot. Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at EJAce1@gmail.com! Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com © 2007, Edwardo Jackson