A Will Ferrell Comedy Is Leading The Charge On Streaming
A Will Ferrell comedy is finding lots of love on streaming.
This article is more than 2 years old
Some sports movies are meant to inspire. There is Rocky, Rudy, Field of Dreams, and The Sandlot (tongue in cheek). Then, there are some sports movies made to tickle the funny bone. One such Will Ferrell movie tries to do that and now sits at #4 on the popular streaming service, Hulu.
Blades of Glory is the “inspiring” ice skating comedy starring Will Ferrell as (one of the best character names in all sports comedies) Chazz Michael Michaels. His rival is Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) and the two duke it out at the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games. Literally.
Both men are polar opposites. Chazz, an obnoxious sex addict, and Jimmy, an effeminate, sheltered man who just so happens to be an extremely talented ice skater. Both men tie for the gold in the Salt Lake Olympics and as they share the podium, their bitterness boils over. Both men begin to throw punches, which leads to a mascot being set on fire, which ends with both men being stripped of their gold and banned from competition for life.
A few years later show both men failing at life. Chazz is a drunk working at a children’s ice show while Jimmy is a big failure working at a sporting goods store.
When Jimmy is informed that his life ban is only for singles competition, he reaches out to his old coach to find him a partner to pair up with to enter the World Winter Sports Games. His last-minute search takes him right to Chazz’s door, where they are both convinced to star as the first-ever men’s pair.
It is not a match made in heaven, especially when their coach tells them in order to win, given that they are the first men pairing ever, they will have to pull off the impossible and never successfully performed move, the Iron Lotus. The only time the move was attempted in competition was by a North Korean duo that resulted in the man decapitating the woman.
The pairing of Chazz and Jimmy begins to threaten the brother and sister duo of Stranz (Will Arnett) and Fairchild Van Waldenberg (Amy Poehler). They are so threatened that they get their sister Katie (The Office’s Jenna Fischer) to try to run interference for them. They get her to go out with Jimmy and then have sex with Chazz.
But Katie falls in love with Jimmy and her siblings threaten to hurt him if she doesn’t follow through with their plan. When Katie tries to seduce Chazz, he surprises her by turning her down out of respect to Jimmy. Chazz just can’t help himself though, so he grabs her breasts. Jimmy sees this and also sees it as a betrayal from both Chazz and Katie.
Stranz and Fairchild now think they have a free run at the World Winter Sports Games championship with Chazz and Jimmy out of the way. Then the bitter enemies arrive in time. Will they be able to pull off the deadly Iron Lotus?
Blade of Glory is meant for one thing and one thing only. To make you laugh. Depending on who you are, those laughs are either well-earned or they aren’t. No doubt Will Ferrell and Jon Heder go for it trying to pull out the laughs. Their supporting cast of Will Arnett and his then real-life wife Amy Poehler were inspired choices that paid off.
Blades of Glory was a critical hit and also one that sat well with most audiences. The movie was directed by the duo of Will Speck and Josh Gordon from a script written by the quartet of Jeff Cox, Craig Cox, John Altschuler, and Dave Krinsky.
For a comedy, the film carried a hefty budget of $61 million but also saw a nice return of $146 million at the box office.
Blades of Glory represents what one either loves about Will Ferrell or can’t stand about him. It’s goofy comedy that many find an acquired taste. He’s had his share of lukewarm comedies to include Kicking & Screaming, Bewitched, Land of the Lost, The Campaign, and Holmes & Watson. Will Ferrell has also hit it out of the park with comedy classics like Old School, Elf, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and Step Brothers.
Currently, Will Ferrell has the upcoming series The Shrink Next Door opposite his Old School mate Luke Wilson. That series will premiere on November 12, 2021, on Apple TV+. He also has a few other projects lined up that include the Christmas musical Spirited, based on the Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol, which will also star Ryan Reynolds as Ebeneezer Scrooge.
Blades of Glory can now be seen on Hulu.
