Blades of Glory (film)

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Blades of Glory
Official movie poster.
Directed by	Josh Gordon Will Speck
Produced by	Ben Stiller Stuart Cornfeld John Jacobs
Written by	John Altschuler Craig Cox Jeff Cox Dave Krinsky Story by Busy Philipps
Starring	Will Ferrell Jon Heder Will Arnett Amy Poehler Jenna Fischer
Music by	Mike Jones
Cinematography	Stefan Czapsky
Editing by	Richard Pearson, Max Coyne
Distributed by	DreamWorks/Paramount
Release date(s)	March 30, 2007
Country	USA
Language	English
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Blades of Glory is a 2007 figure skating comedy film directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck and starring Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, and Jenna Fischer. The film was released on March 30, 2007 by DreamWorks (through Paramount Pictures).

[edit] Plot

At the 2002 World Figure Skating Championships, rival world-class men's singles skaters Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell) and Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) disgraced their sport with an all-out brawl. Consequently, they were both banned from the men's singles competition for the rest of their lives. After three and a half long, arduous years away from the sport they love, they attempt to put aside their differences and team-up in an effort to exploit a loophole in their suspension. It turns out that there is one category in which they can both still compete – pairs figure skating. Of course, that event is usually reserved for opposite-sex couples and the duo is sure to find fierce competition from rivals far more experienced at the art. The sister-brother team of Fairchild (Amy Poehler) and Stranz (Will Arnett) Van Waldenberg, the uncompromisingly competitive reigning pairs champions, comprise one such team.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Reception

Uk based website Mansized scored Blades of Glory an average 3/5 stars, stating that "you'll have a smile on your face throughout."

[edit] Real skaters on set

Chazz and Jimmy compete at US Nationals.

• Sasha Cohen - Herself
• Scott Hamilton - Himself/Commentator
• Peggy Fleming - Herself/Skating Official
• Brian Boitano - Himself/Skating Official
• Dorothy Hamill - Herself/Skating Official
• Nancy Kerrigan - Herself/Skating Official
• Chad Brennan - Will Ferrell's skating double
• Ethan Burgess - Jon Heder's skating double
• Patrick Hancock - Will Arnett's skating double
• Tiffany Scott - Amy Poehler's skating double
• Judy Blumberg - Amy Poehler's coach
• Susan Austin - Will Ferrell's coach
• Dawn Porter - Jon Heder's coach
• John Zimmerman - Stunts/Himself
• Kyoko Ina - Stunts/Herself
• Yuka Sato - Stunts/Herself
• Jamie Sale - Stunts/Herself
• David Pelletier - Stunts/Himself
• Sarah Kawahara - Main Choreographer
• Julie Brault - Choreographer
• Lisa Marie Allen - Choreographer

[edit] References to figure skating in the movie

Blades of Glory is filled with allusions to famous and iconic moments in figure skating, as well as other figure skating films.

• Due to problems with the 6.0 system, Chazz and Jimmy are forced to share a gold medal. See 2002 Olympic Winter Games figure skating scandal

• Stranz and Fairchild plot to injure Chazz "below the knee and above the ankle", referencing the attack on Nancy Kerrigan.

• During the World Wintersport Games, the standings briefly flash across the screen. All the names refer to famous skaters, many of whom are not pairs skaters, and in many cases, the male name is in the position of the female name (female is always first). Skaters named include Evgeni Plushenko, Stephane Lambiel, Elena Grushina, and Ruslan Goncharov (misspelled as Concharov).

• Jimmy's peacock costume is modelled on Johnny Weir's iconic The Swan costume from the 2005-2006 season, complete with glove.^[1] Weir says he is flattered by the parody.^[2]

• The Iron Lotus is a parody of the Pamchenko from The Cutting Edge. Both moves are physically impossible to perform.

• The Iron Lotus is made up of the following elements:

• A headbanger lift (illegal to perform in eligible competition)
• A backflip by the released partner (illegal to perform in eligible competition)
• A death drop by the releasing partner

[edit] Trivia

• The film was delayed for a small undetermined period of time when Jon Heder broke his ankle while doing a skating program for the movie.^[3]

• According to the flags being raised, the four medalists at Worlds were from the United States, South Korea, and Sweden. South Korea has never medalled in men's singles at the World Championships, and Sweden has not medalled in that discipline since 1929.

• All of the scenes at the World Figure Skating Championships were shot at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena

• This is the second time Will Ferrell has played a character named Chazz. The first was in Wedding Crashers

A dance lift similiar to the one Chazz and Jimmy perform

• Many of the lifts Chazz and Jimmy perform are dance lifts, not pairs lifts. These are not illegal in pairs competition and have been performed by many pairs skaters in international competition, and therefore would not be something Scott Hamilton had never seen before. (Unless Hamilton has never watched ice dance.) Despite what Coach claims, there is no specific lift named a "dance lift". Rather, the term refers to a variety of lifts done in ice dancing.

• Will Arnett and Amy Poehler (who play siblings in the film) are actually married.

• Chazz Michael Michaels' skating style was inspired by the skating style of Elvis Stojko.

[edit] Factual errors

• The so-called "loophole" does not exist. International Skating Union regulations state that a pair team on the senior (Olympic) level is made up of a man and a lady.^[4] (Note: Lady is the official terminology for a female skater.) While there are "similar pairs" (pairs made up of two men or two women), such pairs do not compete in ISU competitions. However, Chazz and Jimmy could have competed together in a synchronized skating team, or at a non-ISU event such as the Gay Games that includes similar pairs.

• Competition performances are never referred to as "routines". A pairs competition consists of a Short Program and a Long Program.

• Marks under the 6.0 system were split into Technical and Artistic. There were nine judges on the panel, not six. Furthermore, the ordinals (numbers used, such as 5.8 or 6.0) do not matter, and the winner is decided based on where each judged placed a skater in relation to where that same judged placed every other skater. For more information, see ISU Judging System.

• All of the lifts Chazz and Jimmy are seen doing in competition are real lifts. However, many are an illegal lifts to perform in competition. In legal lifts, the man must be holding the woman by her hands or by her hips. (A lasso lift's hold is hand-to-hand, not hand-to-crotch.)

• Props are not allowed in competition programs.

• The 2002 World Championships were held in Nagano, not Stockholm.^[5]

• The music for competitive programs in singles and pairs may not have vocals.^[4]

• Many jumps are misidentified by the commentators, most notably double jumps as triple jumps.

• Skaters qualify for the United States Figure Skating Championships in one of two ways: through a bye or through earning their spot. If they do not receive a bye, they must qualify through Regional and Sectional competitions. The top four teams from Regionals advance to Sectionals, and the top four teams from Sectionals advance to Nationals. Byes are awarded to 1) skaters/teams who placed in the top five at the senior level at the previous year's Nationals, 2) skaters/teams who qualify for the Junior Grand Prix Final, 3) skaters/teams who qualify for the senior Grand Prix Final, and 4) skaters/teams who had another competition at the same time that Regionals or Sectionals was going on, and therefore were unable to compete at Regionals or Sectionals.

• At the Nationals aerial shots are shown of Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. However the interior scenes of the competition are not of the same arena.

• The flyer that Jimmy looks at for female skater tryouts for Grumbles on Ice says that they will be taking place at the Denver Civic Coliseum. Denver Coliseum is the name of an actual arena in Denver. However, this arena was not used in the film.

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=19545
2. ^ http://www.figureskatersonline.com/johnnyweir/interact.html
3. ^ http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2006/04/07/jon_heder_shoots_blades_of_glory_with_br/
4. ^ ^{a b} Special Regulations and Technical RulesPDF
5. ^ http://www.icecalc.com/events/wc2002/results/index.htm

• Breznican, Anthony (2007-02-05). Heder, Ferrell skate for comedy gold (HTML). USA Today. Retrieved on February 5, 2007.
• Tolson, Shaun (2007-03-11). Leap into Hollywood: Local skater subs for Will Ferrell in comedy ‘Blades of Glory’ (HTML). Boston Herald. Retrieved on March 11, 2007.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Blades of Glory (film)

• Blades of Glory at the Internet Movie Database
• Blades of Glory at Rotten Tomatoes
• Blades of Glory at Metacritic
• Blades of Glory movie trailer
• Pictures of Will Ferrell in skating attire
• RealMovieNews new production stills