Blades of Glory 2007

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A silly spoof that's often unexpectedly sweet. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It may not take Ferrell in any new directions, but it proves that in the right context, looking like Kurt Russell's puffy brother in flaming Spandex, on ice, can give a guy an edge. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The directors, Will Speck and Josh Gordon, nail the subtext and straight-faced deportment of Ferrell's best movies. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Farrell and Heder are pretty funny, but they're consistently upstaged by supporting players William Fichtner, Will Arnett, and Amy Poehler. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Blissfully silly, triumphantly tasteless and improbably hilarious. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: It sounds formulaic, but it's formula done right. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Blades Of Glory does what a good Ferrell vehicle is supposed to do -- it strings enough good bits together to keep the tissue-paper story from tearing, and it comes in at 90 minutes. And that's as close to sticking the landing as it's going to get. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: One day some enterprising company will probably package Ferrell's sillier comedies together for a boxed DVD set. It has its moments, but Blades of Glory probably won't be the first one of the bunch you watch. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: As long as it's near the ice, Blades of Glory sticks a lot of its landings. Read more

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: The movie is at its funniest and most original when zinging the sometimes pretentious milieu of competitive figure skating. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Blades of Glory is too broad to be satire and not mean enough by half -- in any case, competitive figure skating already does a pretty good job spoofing itself. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: Ferrell isn't breaking new ground, but one day -- when he's branching out to play psycho killers and getting in touch with his inner Thespian -- we'll look back on his clowning period and wonder why he would want to do anything else. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Like most Will Ferrell movies, it has enough riotous moments to carry you through the dull stretches. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The comedy plunges so deep into lame (lame?) it comes out on the side of fangless fun. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: If Blades of Glory isn't quite a triple-Lutz, nailed-it triumph of a movie, it's still loads of laughs and guaranteed to please audiences everywhere. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Blades of Glory has funny moves even when its characters can barely move, but the film seldom gets past its one basic laugh: that a real man figure-skating is a contradiction in terms. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Ferrell scores again in Blades of Glory, a comedy that would not seem to need making. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: [There's] enough funny material for a great little Saturday Night Live sketch. The trouble is, there's an extra 80 minutes or so of down time in which Ferrell, Heder and their co-stars are pretty much repeating their characters' shallow schtick. Read more

Julia Wallace, L.A. Weekly: Blades does capture the obvious eccentricities of the skating world, and is funny up to a point, but by now Ferrell & Co. have the formula for a mild comedy down pat. What they need is a little soul. Read more

Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News: They don't quite nail it. Read more

John Hartl, Newsweek: The sheer dreamy silliness of Will Ferrell's new comedy, Blades of Glory, carries it for a remarkably long time. Even after the movie starts recycling ideas and turns formulaic with an overextended chase sequence, it's impossible to dislike. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The plot isn't much, but that's OK: The directing team of Will Speck and Josh Gordon throw their jokes at the wall in rapid succession, and most of them stick. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: Two actors with unique personas, Ferrell and Heder make a good combo, delivering winningly funny wordplay and skate moves. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Blades is not quite Talladega Nights on Ice, but it's a lot of fun. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: You know those one-joke Saturday Night Live sketches that start to age after six minutes? Blades of Glory is one joke that lasts 93 minutes, costs $11 and could involve sitting next to a guy who retells the movie into his cellphone. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Silly as a drag queen convention and subtle as an un-flushed toilet, Blades of Glory is everything you'd hope for in a Will Ferrell comedy. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Blades of Glory is a feeble satire that doesn't do much that's incisive or interesting, and the tame PG-13 rating keeps the raunchiness in check. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: It asks the rhetorical question, 'So what's wrong with the idea of a guy-guy pairs team?' On the other hand, Jimmy's butt-strutting in that peacock suit, his mincing walk, play right into the stereotypes that boneheads everywhere love to laugh at. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: It's worth the admission price just to watch Ferrell and Heder, both more than 6 feet tall, take turns lifting each other and to see Heder's ankles wrapped around his co-star's neck. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Blades of Glory does have its moments of loopy ingenuity, even if none of them goes quite far enough. Read more

Misha Davenport, Chicago Sun-Times: I'd try to avoid the usual cliche of saying this is a fine 10-minute Saturday Night Live sketch that's padded with another 80 minutes of filler, but if this unclever and mostly unfunny film doesn't bother to put in any effort, why should I? Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: As with the recent hit middle-aged road comedy Wild Hogs, Blades of Glory tries to work maximum comic mileage from heterosexual men's fear of proximity to other men's penises. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Blades of Glory is only slightly less funny -- if you ask ignorant old me -- than watching real figure skating. It's your coin. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Blades is an acceptable Friday evening diversion, most of which will have run through your system by Saturday morning. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Personable enough, though genuine belly laughs are in short supply. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: After Ferrell's manchild partners with a fey figure-skating rival (Heder), it's strictly uninspired buddy-comedy bickering. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Some of the best lines are featured in the TV commercials, making you wish the premise had lived up to its promise. Read more

John Anderson, Variety: There may be an overabundance of pain jokes, crotch jokes and painful crotch jokes, but at the end of the program, this farce is the triple axel of comedy. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: To see seemingly regular guys utterly stripped of dignity and defense is cruel enough, but crueler still is the laughter that you cannot seem to stop from rupturing your lungs and aorta. Read more