"Blades" lands a triple lutz

The release of "Blades of Glory" begs the question – how many times can Will Ferrell get away with playing the same character in increasingly ridiculous situations? The answer: At least once more.

While "Blades" isn't able to bolster the same hilarity of Ferrell's previous dumb-guy-has-funny-job comedies (see "Anchorman" and "Talladega Nights"), it holds its own with a bevy of profanity-ridden, spandex-laden low-brow jokes of the highest degree.

Ferrell plays Chazz Michael Michaels, the sleazy and over-sexed king of the competitive figure skating world. At a phony version of the Olympics, he faces off with Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder), the "Little Orphan Awesome of figure skating" and Michaels' biggest rival on the ice. In the first of many outrageous plot turns, they tie for first place and, after a fist fight on the podium, are banned for life from men's singles skating.

It is at this point that the plot falls into the same formulaic line as "Anchorman" and "Talladega Nights" as both skaters are briefly thrown back into the real world, where they fail both miserably and hilariously. In one memorable moment of depravity, Ferrell wears a giant wizard head and drunkenly yells his way through a kiddie ice show.However, the day is saved when Jimmy discovers a loophole: While they're banned from singles skating, the two can still compete in the pairs division. Of course they end up skating together, paving the way for the movie's one, miraculously consistently hilarious joke – the image of two men in tights skating together.

The success of this joke is due almost entirely to the cast. Ferrell is just as hilarious as ever, and Heder manages to keep up and bring a couple laughs of his own. Fans of "Napoleon Dynamite" will be pleased to see him finally prove, after such colossal flops as "Just Like Heaven," "School for Scoundrels" and "The Benchwarmers," that he doesn't need the tots and moon boots to succeed.

The supporting cast seals the deal. Real-life husband and wife Will Arnett and Amy Poehler are Stranz and Fairchild van Waldenberg, a brother-sister skating team who connive to bring down our heroes and win the gold for themselves. They attempt to do so through the one surefire way to break up a team: not herpes, as Stranz guesses, but jealousy. Enter the film's love interest, their put-upon little sister Katie, played by the always lovable Jenna Fischer (Pam on "The Office"), who wins Jimmy's awkward affections. This subplot, though necessary to move the story along, is the weakest part of the film, and slows it down at times, though it does admittedly provide a respite from the abundance of crotch jokes.

The main problem with the film is the inherent difficulty in balancing the ridiculous farce with the temptation to dive into inspirational sports movie waters. Of course, with schlubby Will Ferrell at the helm, it's difficult to mistake this for a real sports movie. Yet ten minute segments with few or no gags can make an audience restless, especially one who has paid $9.50 expressly to see grown men make ice-skating fools of themselves.

That said, the movie's farcical elements are spot-on, with just enough plausibility to lend it some skating cred. With cameos by skating pros Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Brian Boitano, Nancy Kerrigan and Sasha Cohen (and one unrelated one by Luke Wilson, because why not?) as well as a fairly accurate replication of those lame biographical packs you see during the Olympics, the movie takes every opportunity to poke fun at one of the world's most easily mocked sports.

The costumes are also worthy of mention. From Jimmy's peacock outfit (complete with tail feathers) and Chazz's flame-throwing leather get-up at the beginning, the spandex atrocities donned by the skaters get more and more outlandish. In the climactic showdown, it's Jimmy and Chazz as robots (with fireworks) against Stranz and Fairchild as John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, whose routine includes sleeping pills and an artfully performed Heimlich maneuver.

In the end, there are people who adore Ferrell's brand of low-brow idiocy, and people who don't. If you're not a Ferrell fan, "Blades of Glory" may not be to your liking. But if so, it might just win the gold.

"Blades of Glory" (93 minutes, at area theaters) is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language, a comic violent image and some drug references.