Les rois du patin

BLADES OF GLORY seems like a natural follow-up to Will Farrell's TALLADEGA NIGHTS, as its spirit and silliness are sure reminiscent of this wonderful comedy. However, here the setting is ice skating and Jon Heder ("Napoleon Dynamite") is also the co-star.

The film begins with Heder and Farrell tying for the gold medal in the world championship that is obviously supposed to be the Olympics. However, the Olympics are an extremely litigious organization and would have sued the studio for every penny they could get, so the Olympic trademark rings were changed and the word "Olympics" never were uttered in the film. Despite both men winning the men's individual gold, however, they were bitter rivals and began a hilarious fight on the podium--with horribly unexpected results. In retaliation, the men are stripped of their medals and banned from Men's Figure Skating. However, later they learn that this did NOT mean that they could not compete in pairs and they men create the most unusual skating team in history!! Now before you read on, it's very, very important that if you see the film you are the type person who can suspend disbelief. Sure, the moves they make aren't legal, two guys are NOT allowed to skate in pairs skating and the film is chock-full of impossibilities....and don't even get me started on the ending!! The bottom line is that if you are a nit-picking twit, you'll drive yourself crazy making sense of the impossibilities in the movie. My advice is to resist this urge strongly and just sit back and enjoy. The film is hilarious and it's amazing to see Farrell and Heder skate as well as they did (though it's obvious that some CGI was used--believe me, NO ONE could do much of what was done in the film!).

Original and exceptionally silly and stupid, this is a great "turn off your brain and enjoy" sort of film (much like TALLADEGA NIGHTS). While I often like very cerebral films and art films, sometimes I just need a liberal does of stupid and fun and this film fits the bill very nicely.