Blades of Glory Take two male figure skaters, throw in a preposterous storyline, and you've got Blades of Glory, a surprisingly funny film that almost makes you forgive Will Ferrell for his back-to-back 2005 clunkers Kicking & Screaming and Bewitched. This time around, Ferrell eats the scenery in his role as a sex-addicted, cocky skating champ named Chazz Michael Michaels. When he gets into an on-podium fight with his nemesis and co-gold medallist Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder, Napoleon Dynamite), both skaters are banned from competing in men's figure-skating events. Forever.... Their fall from grace is brutal. Chazz is forced to work for a D-list skating show, while pampered Jimmy is disowned by his wealthy and cold-hearted adoptive father (excellently played by William Fichtner), who only wants to be around winners. When Jimmy points out that he tied for gold, his dad cruelly says, "If I wanted to share, I would've bought you a brother." Flash forward 3-1/2 years and Jimmy's No. 1 stalker Hector (Nick Swardson) says he's found a loophole. Jimmy's been banned from men's singles events, but there's nothing that says he can't compete in pairs skating. After a chance meeting with Chazz, mayhem ensues as the two rivals team up to go against the brother-and-sister team of Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg (played by Will Arnett and his real-life wife, Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live and Mean Girls fame). The Van Waldenbergs will stop at nothing to beat the competition, even if that means literally beating up the competition. They have no qualms manipulating their sweet little sister (Jenna Fischer, The Office) to seduce both men to try to break up the team. The finale will be no surprise to moviegoers who know that comedies like this aren't set up to make its leading men losers. But there is one brief skating sequence set in North Korea that will surprise (and shock) many viewers because of its brutality. Ferrell and Heder make a great comedy team. Though he has been accused of playing the same role since his breakthrough performance in Napoleon Dynamite and, to a certain extent, plays a similar type of role here, Heder is spot-on as Jimmy. He manages to convey innocence, bitterness, and longing--all within the span of a few seconds and while wearing a peacock unitard (You can understand why Hector is so enthralled with him). Look for guest appearances by real-life skating champs Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano, Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Nancy Kerrigan, and Sasha Cohen, who gets to sniff Chazz's jockstrap. --Jae-Ha Kim Old School When three thirtysomething friends with woman troubles (Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, and Vince Vaughn) decide to form a fraternity, it's supposedly to save Wilson from losing his house, which the nearby college is trying to claim for academic purposes. But really, Ferrell and Vaughn are desperate to return to the reckless, feckless days of beer bongs and hot chicks, and they drag Wilson along with them as they throw themselves into gathering frat pledges of all ages. Old School could have been just another string of bad jokes hanging on a flimsy plot, but the script and the cast have a jovial energy and just enough grounding in reality--at least, up until the obligatory beat-the-system ending, but by that point you'll forgive the excesses of this silly, cheerful, and frequently funny movie. Featuring Jeremy Piven and Juliette Lewis, with cameos by Snoop Dog, Andy Dick, and others. --Bret Fetzer Anchorman Will Ferrell followed up his star-making vehicle Elf, which matched his fine-tuned comic obliviousness to a sweet sincerity, with a more arrogant variation on the same character: Ron Burgundy, a macho, narcissistic news anchor from the 1970s. Along with his news posse--roving reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd, Clueless), sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner), and dim-bulb weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell, Bruce Almighty)--Burgundy rules the roost in San Diego, fawned upon by groupies and supported by a weary producer (Fred Willard, Best In Show) who tolerates Burgundy's ego because of good ratings. But when Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate, View from the Top) arrives with ambitions to become an anchor herself, she threatens the male-dominated newsroom. Anchorman has plenty of funny material, but it's as if Ferrell couldn't decide what he really wanted to mock, and so took smart-ass cracks at everything in sight. Still, there are moments of inspired delirium. --Bret Fetzer [show more]
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Three popular comedy films starring Will Ferrell. In 'Blades of Glory' (2007), when rival figure skaters Chaz Michael Michaels (Ferrell) and Jimmy McElroy (Jon Heder) start battering each other on an Olympic podium in front of the world's press, they're stripped of their gold gongs and banned from the sport for life. Several years down the line and they're reduced to IceCapades-type ice theatre shows and hating it considerably. There's one loophole that might get them back into competing but it involves them pairing up and becoming the first male-male pair in world figure skating. Their macho egos are only two of the obstacles they need to overcome, and hating each other certainly doesn't help. In 'Old School' (2003), director Todd Phillips (the man behind the controversial expose 'Frat House') looks at what happens to a group of guys after they have left college and settled down. Mitch (Luke Wilson) catches the early flight home after a business trip and finds his wife (Juliette Lewis) in bed with a room full of naked strangers. He moves out and rents a house near the campus of his old college. With the help of his two best friends (Ferrell and Vince Vaughn), he gets down to some serious partying. The partying, however, soon attracts the students of the college - and the anger of the dean who tries to make Mitch's neighbourhood a student-only area. To counter this, the friends form a fraternity with its headquarters at Mitch's house. But their high jinks begin to take their toll on Mitch's potential love-life. In 'Anchorman - The Legend of Ron Burgundy' (2004), Ferrell stars as Ron Burgundy, a top-rated 1970s San Diego anchorman who believes women have a place in the newsroom - so long as they stick to covering fashion shows or late-breaking cooking news, that is. So when Ron is told he'll be working with a bright young newswoman (Christina Applegate) who's beautiful, ambitious, and intelligent enough to be more than eye candy, it's not just a clash of two TV people with really great hair: it's war.
Three popular comedy films starring Will Ferrell. In 'Blades of Glory' (2007), when rival figure skaters Chaz Michael Michaels (Ferrell) and Jimmy McElroy (Jon Heder) start battering each other on an Olympic podium in front of the world's press, they're stripped of their gold gongs and banned from the sport for life. Several years down the line and they're reduced to IceCapades-type ice theatre shows and hating it considerably. There's one loophole that might get them back into competing but it involves them pairing up and becoming the first male-male pair in world figure skating. Their macho egos are only two of the obstacles they need to overcome, and hating each other certainly doesn't help. In 'Old School' (2003), director Todd Phillips (the man behind the controversial expose 'Frat House') looks at what happens to a group of guys after they have left college and settled down. Mitch (Luke Wilson) catches the early flight home after a business trip and finds his wife (Juliette Lewis) in bed with a room full of naked strangers. He moves out and rents a house near the campus of his old college. With the help of his two best friends (Ferrell and Vince Vaughn), he gets down to some serious partying. The partying, however, soon attracts the students of the college - and the anger of the dean who tries to make Mitch's neighbourhood a student-only area. To counter this, the friends form a fraternity with its headquarters at Mitch's house. But their high jinks begin to take their toll on Mitch's potential love-life. In 'Anchorman - The Legend of Ron Burgundy' (2004), Ferrell stars as Ron Burgundy, a top-rated 1970s San Diego anchorman who believes women have a place in the newsroom - so long as they stick to covering fashion shows or late-breaking cooking news, that is. So when Ron is told he'll be working with a bright young newswoman (Christina Applegate) who's beautiful, ambitious, and intelligent enough to be more than eye candy, it's not just a clash of two TV people with really great hair: it's war.
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