Movie Review: Blades of Glory

Blades of Glory (2007) 

Directed by Josh Gordon, Will Speck

Written by John Altschuler

Starring Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Jenna Fischer

Release Date March 30th, 2007

Published March 29th, 2007

How does a film critic approach something like the new Will Ferrell comedy Blades of Glory. It's not so much a movie as it is a series of skits featuring the same characters. Yes, there is the vague sense of a narrative and a sense of filmmaking skill involved in the capturing of the various skits, but is it really a movie in the classic sense of the term? Not really. Blades Of Glory may not be a real 'movie' but as a series of skits; cut together; and presented on the big screen; it is rather hilarious.

Will Ferrell stars in Blades Of Glory as Chazz Michael Michaels. We are told that he is a world championship figure skater whose showmanship has earned him the nickname "Sex on Ice". His main rival is a sweet natured, orphan turned prodigy; Jimmy McElroy (Jon Heder). When we meet them for the first time, in dueling TV highlight packages, they are competing for the world championship in men's figure skating.

Michaels with his trademark fireballs and McElroy with his own trademark bird-like moves, manage a tie for the gold medal but neither is satisfied. On the medal stand the two rivals argue and push and shove and finally break down into the kind of catfight one might not stereotypically expect from figure skaters. Soon both skaters are bloodied and the mascot is on fire.

The fight gets both skaters stripped of their medals and banned from skating. Oh, but there is a loophole. They were banned from men's singles skating, not pairs. Eventually, Jimmy's coach (Craig T. Nelson) gets the brilliant idea to pair the rivals as the first male figure skating pair in history, much to the dismay of the top pairs couple in the world Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg (Will Arnett and Amy Poehler). The brother sister pair make it their mission to destroy their new rival with the help of their mousy little sister Katie (Jenna Fischer) who caught Jimmy's eye.

OK, there is a semblance of a plot here. However, watching it unfold and describing it are two very different things. Watching Blades of Glory I was left waiting for the movie to begin. Every scene is the set-up of a bit, closed with a punchline ending. There is little story progression, almost no character development and what little there is, is undone quickly by another gag/punchline ending. That said, most of the gags and punchlines in Blades of Glory are pretty funny and that goes a long way in excusing the film's faults.

I promise not to give away any of the great jokes in Blades of Glory except to say keep an eye on the hot dog guy. This one line day player has the best joke in the movie. Also stealing the show is costume designer Julie Weiss whose Flash Gordon meets Tron designs are absolutely priceless. The costumes in the final performance may in fact get the loudest laugh of anything in the film.

Will Ferrell is... Will Ferrell. He's everything you expect him to be in Blades of Glory, obnoxious, clueless, occasionally drunk and it works for him. What is odd is watching Ferrell try and share the screen with Heder who, though likable, is not on Will's plain in terms of starpower. In fact, Ferrell's role is really a glorified supporting role. Heder is the one with the more pronounced arc and he gets the girl. Ferrell merely sweeps in for punchlines. Pretty well, all of them.

For those who stick around for the credits and want to know who that is singing that oddly earnest sounding "Blades of Glory" theme song, it's not Survivor or the remaining members of Boston. It's former American Idol contestant Bo Bice.

I don't think Blades of Glory is very good as a movie but as a series of laughs strung together; I must admit, I laughed alot. Will Ferrell as a figure skater is enough to produce a chuckle. When decked out in spandex skating to Foreigner tunes, he is just a scream. There may not be a plot but when the jokes are this funny it's hard to complain to much. I guess; you could call this a recommendation for Blades of Glory.

Movie Review Slither

Slither (2006) 

Directed by James Gunn

Written by James Gunn

Starring Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker, Gregg Henry, Jenna Fischer

Release Date March 31st, 2006

Published March 30th, 2006 

I am in a major conflict with myself over the movie Slither. On the one hand, I laughed a lot while watching it. On the other hand, Slither is so vile and so disgusting I'm not sure that I can recommend it in good conscience. I know you believe you have a strong stomach and a love of ironic humor but Slither is so polarized in its humor and horror that many audiences will find it hard to enjoy both of those aspects at once.

In the tiny town of Wheelsy the most important time of the year is the opening of deer hunting season. The entire town seemingly shows up at one tiny little bar in the middle of town to drink beer, sing songs and plan their hunting parties for the following morning.

This year however hunting season will have a whole new meaning. Somewhere in the forest a meteorite has struck the earth and what is inside is an insidious alien being bent on consuming the entire human race. First up is the lecherous businessman Grant Grant (Michael Rooker), no typo his first and last name are Grant. In the woods after a night of drinking and preparing to cheat on his wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks), Grant stumbles across the meteorite and becomes the aliens first victim.

Grant is not dead, rather, he has become the alien delivery vessel. He carries the alien seed that will infect the entire town and eventually the world. The aliens take the form of slimy, disgusting slugs that leap into the mouths of victims turning people into flesh eating zombies.

Standing between the aliens and world domination is Wheelsy's easy going sheriff Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion). An unassuming slacker, Pardy has remained in Wheelsy his whole life because he really had nothing better to do. He has, for years, nursed a serious crush on Starla but sadly watched as she tried only to leave Wheelsy before settling for a life of comfort with Grant.

Now the sheriff and Starla have to team together to find Grant and stop the alien invasion. They are aided by the venal Wheelsy mayor Jack McReady (Gregg Henry) and a teenage girl, Kylie (Tania Saulnier) who survives an attack by the aliens and gains the power to see their plan in full completion.

Much of Slither plays like the kind of ironic detached horror comedy that I truly love.

Minor touches like Starla and Grant's song being a super-cheeseball tune by Air Supply which we hear at the most unnerving moments are just brilliant.

The humor extends to the casting where the ultra-creepy Michael Rooker could not be more suitably cast as the sad, tragic and disgusting Grant Grant. Rooker, who played, arguably, the most terrifying screen villain in the history of the horror genre in Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer, is unafraid to tweak his creepy persona for a few big laughs. His commitment to the character is unnerving leaving this critic with the wonderful inside joke of Rooker maybe having played Grant in a full on method performance, never breaking character.

Written and directed by James Gunn, who did an exceptional job adapting a new version of George Romero's Dawn of The Dead, Slither is one of the most stomach churning horror films in the history of the genre. That is not surprising considering Gunn's history with the ultimate purveyor of disgust in the industry, Troma films founder and filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman.

No one knows gross, not the box office kind, like Lloyd Kaufman and his influence can be felt throughout the more stomach turning moments of Slither.

The film plays like Gunn's attempt to fuse Troma style gut churning gross out with a mainstream sci fi, horror and comedy film. The attempt is brave but the results are mixed. Slither works in making its audience ill from its brand of gross out gags, eviscerated animals, oversized exploding humans and those dreadful slugs, but fails at times to keep up the energy needed to keep the audience fully engaged beyond needing pepto-bismol.

The film is very funny, with especially humorous performances by Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks. Fillion's deadpan humor in the face of so much disgustingness is a real treat. Banks for her part, is funny and sexy in equal measure. Watch the scene where the hunting party searching for the now alien infested Grant find him in a field and Banks' Starla talks of marriage as a sacred unbreakable bond, very funny stuff.

There is alot to love about Slither and yet I cannot fully endorse the film. Maybe this was the film's intent all along, but I was made physically ill by the end of Slither. Do not eat before you see Slither because you may not be able to keep it down, it's that disgusting. If the filmmakers were judging the movie on how many patrons ran for the bathrooms at the end, they have a major success on their hands. However when that sickly feeling makes you forget about so much of what you enjoyed about the movie, is that really a success?

Movie Review Hall Pass

Hall Pass (2011) 

Directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly 

Written by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, Pete Jones, Kevn Barnett 

Starring Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate, Richard Jenkins

Release Date February 25th, 2011 

Published February 24th, 2011

Peter and Bobby Farelly haven't been relevant since they rode the public's brief fascination with Jack Black in the early 2000's to a hit with “Shallow Hal.” Since then the brothers have floundered half focused on new material and half obsessed with making a movie about the Three Stooges. The Stooges movie has been gestating since the late 90's with a variety of acting combinations dropping in and out with nothing to show for it.

Finally, the guys who started the man-child comedy revolution with movies like “There's Something About Mary” are back at full strength and making the kind of movie that was their forte. “Hall Pass” is a small miracle of outrageously raunchy humor with a good heart that made ``Mary,’ “Kingpin” and “Shallow Hal” hits.

Owen Wilson stars in “Hall Pass” as Rick, an early 40's father of three happily married for more than 15 years to Maggie (Jenna Fischer). Three kids have taken the spark out of the marriage lately and more and more Maggie is catching Rick lusting after other women like a horny old teenager.

More troubled are Rick and Maggie's best friends Fred (Jason Sudeikis) and Grace (Christina Applegate). They have no kids and no spark; leaving Fred to masturbate in the front seat of their minivan lest she catch him. (If you're wondering how that bit of information pays off, see the movie.) Rick and Fred commiserate over their troubled love lives at a local coffee shop while lusting after an Aussie barista named Leigh (Nicky Whelan) whose nubile-ness represents everything they fantasize about.

After speaking to a mutual friend “The View's Joy Behar in an unshowy cameo) Maggie and Grace come up with the idea of a Hall Pass. The concept is simple, one week off from marriage to do whatever the guys want, guilt free. Either they will spend the week striking out or they will get whatever cheating they were going to do anyway out of their systems.

This is the kind of simple, straight forward set up that Ron Howard and Vince Vaughn botched in “The Dilemma.” The Farrelly Brothers demonstrate that it takes more than just the idea to make the movie; you need characters and big gags that pay off to really make it work.

Owen Wilson shows a heretofore untapped talent for playing a middle aged dork. Usually cast as the life of the party guy, Wilson slips effortlessly into the role of Rick like one in the long line of 80's rock 'n roll t-shirts Rick thinks is cool. What Rick and Fred think is cool goes a long way for laughs in “Hall Pass.”

Jason Sudeikis is a real scene stealer in “Hall Pass;” offering the same kind of randy, goofy, raunch-ridden asides that he brought to his equally funny supporting role in last year's “Going the Distance” with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. Sudeikis plays a great douchebag but when the role calls for him to morph into a good guy you believe it fully.

The gags in “Hall Pass” range from the classically Farrelly bathroom jokes, including some truly explosive diarrhea, to more self aware stuff reflecting the ways in which guys really talk. A scene taking place in the home of a mutual friend that neither Rick or Fred really like demonstrates that guys can be as catty as women are about the people they envy, they just have a more blunt and colorful way of being catty.

”Hall Pass” is uproariously funny with big gags mixing with strong characters and in the end a believable amount of heart minus the treacle that most other, similar films pack on when they don't have the goods to really earn audience sympathies. The Farrelly Brothers haven't been this funny in over a decade. See “Hall Pass” and rejoice and who knows, maybe that Stooges movie will actually come out someday.