Last night I saw a preview showing of the new Will Farrell / Jon Heder flick Blades of Glory. I looked at trailers for this movie a month or so ago and by ghawd cringed at it. It looked like a homophobic sophomoric mess with two directors and five writers and I could not imagine that it would have anything to recommend itself to me. That should have been the end of the story. But the GF found out about this free showing sponsored by the Boston Globe and WBCN and Newbury Comics, and as I was free for the evening and was in the mood to hang out with Missy Ma'am, I kinda said, what th' hell, I'll go see a bad movie. Might be a kick just on that level.
It was kinda across town on the Brookline verge of Newton, at this beat cineplex called the Cleveland Circle Showcase Cinema, so there was the 45 minute travel time to conted with, into somewhat unfamiliar territory. I took two wrong turns, but even after the 2nd one, I was still able to orient myself. We got there in pretty good time, like 5 minutes before the show. Very young crowd. K said "we're skewing the demographic" and that was obviously so. The house was about 5/6th full -- the front five or so rows were empty, and the theater was kinda long & narrow.
So anyway, not long to wait for the movie to start, and they didn't show any previews. So we walk in, sit down and BAM!
The opening titles were actually kind of understated, a montage of beautiful, fuzzy shots of kids skating. Not what I expected at all. The whole movie is like a preteen boy's fantasy about what skating is, a total flight of fancy and so extremely over the top. It was hilarious, with a couple of outre, hammy, raucous, great performances at its center, and a truly top notch supporting cast including Craig T. Nelson, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Jenna Fischer, and William Fichtner.
I think no comedy stands up to analysis, and this one dares you to try and analyze it. (I will get the DVD when it comes out, so I'll figure some of it out then, I guess...) I actually found it slightly homophibic, but not nearly as much as you might expect. Note that the only "gay" character never actually comes out and is a stalker. If you are sensitive about such things this may not be the movie for you. I'm pretty easy to offend actually, but this didn't piss me off: You end up liking the gay stalker character. (yes, like much of the movie, that's so wrong!)
So, if you like your comedy burlesque and a little edgy, I think you might find this a pleasantly spent hour and a half.
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