|
|
 |
Blades of Glory
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Dreamworks Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (8th June 2008). |
|
The Film
 Will Ferrell comedies have been hit or miss lately, his recent basketball comedy "Semi-Pro" (2008) failed to hit the mark, and while I enjoy Ferrell as a comedic actor I mostly preferred his dramatic role in "Stranger than Fiction" than anything else he's done. "Blades of Glory" was another in a line Ferrell sports comedies that kicked off with "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" (2006) which had it's moments but overall was a little disappointing. "Blades of Glory" takes a humorous look at professional ice skating, and I must admit for the most part this has got to be Ferrell's strongest comedy in a while, as the sport is rife with potential comedic gold and the cast use it to their advantage on many occasions. Often when marketing comedies many of the film's funniest moments are all included in the trailer and when you finally see the film you realize that the rest of it seems to be filler, well I'm pleased for once that this film had many more moments of hilarity than advertised in the trailer. "Blades of Glory" tells the story of two professional figure skaters who have developed a rivalry. The sexy and dangerous Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell) and the flamboyant Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder). The two are opposites and fiercely competitive, when they tie in a crucial championship the gloves come off as they embarrass themselves in front of a live crowd and make a mockery of the games. As a result their medals are stripped and are both banned from figure skating for life. Three and a half years later, both Michaels and MacElroy are down and out, Michaels performing in a kids ice show while MacElroy is a stock boy at a ski shop. Just when they've both reached the bottom a loop-hole is discovered thanks to Jimmy's psycho fan Hector (Nick Swardson), the ban only applies to their division, which means they both can return to figure skating in a different division...the pairs. In stunning form, both Michaels and MacElroy return as partners to reclaim their dreams. What's immediately apparent is that the sport of ice skating opens itself to a lot of funny moments, the pageantry, the costumes and routines are all targets for these comedians. This is especially true and funniest when these two guys are performing together. They manage to capture the sheer awkwardness of two guys skating together and it works beyond just being a one-trick pony. The dynamic of the characters also worked, being on opposite sides of the spectrum their styles clash and generate immediate laughs. When Ferrell's in sync and fire on all cylinders he is a comic genius (but when he falls he falls hard). I was also impressed with the supporting cast, who really sell a lot of the jokes and they are as equally memorable as the main players especially Hector the psycho fan who has not only the most twisted lines in the film but was my favorite of the supporting cast, and of course there's the choreographer Jesse (Romany Malco, who was awesome in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (2005)) who does his bit and manages to cajole the two leads into yet more awkward and humorous situations. The villains of the film, skating brother and sister pair Stranz (Will Arnett) and Fairchild Van Waldenberg (Amy Poehler) also worked well together as they improvised their way through many scenes. The film is light and doesn't over step its welcome, although there was potential for this to delve into 'Unrated' territory the filmmakers kept it quite tame in comparison to some other Ferrell comedies. If anything the downsides can be categorized in the 'Been-there-done-that' category, as Ferrell basically plays the same character here as he's done on numerous occasions, the egotistical asshole who only thinks of himself, he suddenly gets a wake-up call and tries to set things right, etc...there's nothing new in either the character or the plot. Additionally I felt that although Heder makes due with his scenes he never seems to hit the mark aside from when he's paired with Ferrell, when these two are on screen it's great, but when Heder is off on his own he falls a bit flat and it's the supporting players around him that lift the game, case in point are the scenes he shares with Nick Swardson or Jenna Fischer, they are ones getting the laughs as Heder tries to garner laughs from his feminine look, which gets old about 20 seconds after they introduced it. Being a sports comedy there are the usual gags, such as the commentators making ridiculous statements, "Blades of Glory" has it's resident commentators and they try and inject some funny gags into the mix but only ever succeed a handful of times. "Blades of Glory" is a funny movie, the characters sell the concept far more than the plot does and Ferrell and Heder certainly make a great team. The supporting cast were in top form and the sport opens itself to a whole lot of comedic damage.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 this transfer is in high-definition 1080p 24/fps and has been encoded with AVC MPEG-4 compression. I haven't been given the opportunity to check out the previous HD-DVD release of this film, but I doubt there's much difference between the transfers. This image is crisp and sharp and was impressed with the vibrancy of the colors, they seem to leap off the screen. It's a clean and beautiful transfer that shows off the surroundings ridiculous costumes of the cast. Detail holds up incredibly well, skin tones are perfect, black levels are bold, shadow detail also holds up well throughout the print. There's hardly a single flaw, Paramount has certainly delivered the goods with this image.
Audio
Four audio tracks are included in English uncompressed PCM 5.1 mastered at 48kHz/24-bit as well as standard Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in English, French and Spanish. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its PCM soundtrack. Much like the image the sound track is also a strong contender, the dialogue is clear and distortion free and for a comedy this film includes a rather spacious and immersive soundtrack. The arena scenes come to life with crowds and the score adds a further dimension to the overall sound mix. It's a great mix that goes a little further than most other comedies. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Paramount has included several extras, they are 7 featurettes, 4 deleted scenes, a gag reel, alternate takes, a music video, a series of promos and a photo gallery. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is "Return to Glory: The Making of Blades" a featurette that runs for 14 minutes 46 seconds, this is a standard EPK clip that briefly glosses over the film's plot, the production and cast. The key cast and crew provide interviews inter-cut with some footage from the set and also from the film itself. There's nothing engaging or incredibly informative about this clip and it's only worth watching once. Next up is "Cooler Than Ice: The Super-Sexy Costumes of Skating" featurette which runs for 4 minutes 37 seconds, as the title suggests this takes a closer look at the costumes created for the cast as the costume designer takes us through the process. Following that is "Celebrities on Thin Ice" featurette that runs for 6 minutes 3 seconds, this clip takes a look at how the cast were made to look like pro-skaters for this film. It roughly delves into the choreography. This clip could have benefited by being a bit more detailed and thorough. Next up is "Arnett & Poehler: A Family Affair" featurette that runs for 5 minutes 48 seconds, thisd is a fun clip that demonstrates the dynamic of this comedic duo who are in fact husband and wife. "20 Questions with Scott Hamilton" featurette runs for 4 minutes 59 seconds, here pro-skater Hamilton who also plays a commentator in the film is interviewed, the clip is rather humorous as the questions are very serious to begin with. "Hector: Portrait of a Psychofan" is another featurette that runs for 3 minutes 21 seconds and takes a closer look at the character as he takes the time to talk about his obsession with Jimmy. "Moviefone Unscripted" is the last of the featurettes and runs for 9 minutes 54 seconds. This promotional clip includes Ferrell, Heder and Arnett all asking each other various questions. This was an internet promo created for the marketing of the film. There are also a series of 4 deleted scenes, they can be viewed individually or with a 'play all' option, they include: - "Stranz and Fairchild Watch Katie's Video" runs for 1 minute 9 seconds, the brother and sister pair scrutinize the video Katie took of Chazz and Jimmy's training session. - "Chazz Offers the Verticoli Flashback" runs for 4 minutes 23 seconds, Chazz helps Jimmy get ready for his date with Katie and recalls a painful time in his childhood. - "Blades of Glory Song" runs for 2 minutes 54 seconds, Chazz writes a song by a cozy fireplace as Jimmy joins in. - "Hector Shoots Darren" runs for 41 seconds, Hector accidentally shoots Darren MacElroy. The disc also includes a gag reel that runs for 2 minutes 8 seconds and features the usual stuff, line flubs, missed cues, cast members laughing in takes, etc. There's also some alternate takes that runs for 8 minutes 38 seconds, a lot of this film was improvised, so there are a series of alternate versions to some scenes, here we get to see several different versions of scenes that are in the film. Following that is "Blades of Glory" a music video by former "American Idol" (2002-Present) contestant Bo Bice, it runs for 4 minutes 38 seconds. The disc also features 3 "MTV Interstitials" promos, these are basically TV spot promos created for the marketing of the film and shown exclusively on the MTV network and include: - "Montage" which runs for 32 seconds. - "Chazz" which runs for 32 seconds. - "Stranz and Fairchild" which runs for 32 seconds. Rounding out the extras are a series of photo galleries that include: - "Kick Some Ice" which features 34 images of behind-the-scenes photos. - "Capture the Dream" which features 37 images of more behind-the-scenes photos. - "Costume Glory" features three additional sub-sections: "Mind Bottling" includes 27 images of character shots, "Provocative" includes 28 images and "Boooom" includes another 28 images.
Overall
|
|||||
|