Blades of Glory
With its distinct show-biz overtones, dazzling costumes and
combination of athleticism with grace, if ever there was a
sport that deserved to be ‘sent-up’ it has to
be figure ice-skating. Even so, with its lifts, jumps and
stipulated movements, presented in choreographed routines,
figure ice-skating is an extremely demanding sport, and director
Josh Gordon takes much delight in satirizing this sport in
his exceedingly funny movie ‘Blades of Glory’.
When Chazz ‘Sex on Ice’ Michael Michaels, the
bad-boy of figure ice-skating, ties with the elegant and effete
former child prodigy Jimmy MacElroy, for first place at the
Stockholm World Winter Games, they get into a brawl on the
podium while receiving their Gold Medals, and are consequently
banned-for-life from competition. Finding a loop-hole in the
regulations, they decide to team up and come back as the world’s
first ‘man and man’ figure ice-skating couple.
Although there is much potential for ‘over-the-top’
camp humor in this scenario, the movie rarely goes down that
path. Instead, it becomes a male-bonding ‘buddy’
movie as the two skaters, who initially loath each other,
must find the strengths and weaknesses within each other,
so they can perform successfully as a skating couple. It is
in this bonding process that the film displays its wonderful
warmth and charm. Will Ferrell has been skating around the
periphery of fame for sometime. Probably best known for his
up-staging role as the insane Nazi author in the musical re-make
of ‘The Producers’, a ‘starring’ smash-hit
movie, so essential for his career, has eluded him. But, in
his role as the drunken and sex-addicted Chazz, Will has finally
found a character and a movie to establish himself as the
‘now’ comedian. Will is fabulous in this movie.
Newcomer Jon Heder handles the effete role of Jimmy rather
well, and it is probably best to remind yourself that he is
only acting. It would be a shame to see him type-cast into
this kind of role, as he shows much comedic flair. I presume
‘stunt-skaters’ executed the more spectacular
parts of the skating routines, yet the blending of stunt-men
and actors are seamless, creating the illusion that Will and
Jon are first-rate skaters. Josh Gordon also fills his movie
with a marvelous collection of secondary characters, who keep
the jokes bubbling along. Audiences who stay glued to their
television sets throughout the broadcasts of any Winter Olympics,
are going to love this delightful farce.
Boy Town
Back in the 1980s the fictitious Boy Band ‘Boy Town’
was a huge, mega-watti, super-success, but, it is now 2005,
and their records are relegated to the reject bins, while
the group has been entirely forgotten. The five original members
of the group are now in their late thirties, and the former
leader of the group, intrigued by the success of ‘cover’
bands, talk the ‘Boy Town’ members into staging
a comeback. At first they try to re-create their old ‘look’
and ‘sound’, but this is a total disaster, and
then they strike on the ingenious idea of writing new songs
for their aging fans, who have all settled into suburbia and
a peaceful life. ‘Boy Town’ is a monster hit all
over again. The movie ‘Boy Town’ has been written
by Mick Molloy, and it is directed by Kevin Carlin. It stars
Mick Molloy and Glenn Robbins, and the movie was produced
by Greg Sitch. This is an awfully clever and creative comedy
team, who all first came to fame on Australian television.
‘Boy Town’ takes substantial shots at the Boy
Band phenomenon, the Music Industry and the MTV Generation,
but, what is refreshing about this movie is that the accents
and language are all distinctively Australian, yet the humor
in the movie is not colloquial. This comedy will have universal
appeal. For once, you don’t have to be Australian to
‘get’ the humor. Also, pay particular attention
to the lyrics of the band’s songs, written by Gareth
Skinner. They are very witty, and often funnier than the dialogue
going down. The film’s re-creation of MTV-like video
clips are priceless, and the groups comeback world tour encounters
similar disasters such as in the movie ‘Spinal Tap’,
which was, no-doubt, ‘Boy Town’s’ initial
influence, though comparisons are unfair. ‘Boy Town’
is the best musical-comedy to come out of Australia since
‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’, still, ‘Boy
Town’ has nothing in common with that legendary ‘camp’
movie. ‘Boy Town’ is just a hell of a lot of fun!
Disturbia
A disturbed young man is sentenced to ‘home arrest’
for three months. The electronic devise attached to his ankle
restricts his movements to the edge of his family’s
property. Boredom quickly sets in, and the young man starts
to spy on his neighbors from the window of his upstairs bedroom.
Pretty soon he suspects something suspicious is going on next
door. Sounds familiar? Director D. J. Caruso’s suspense-thriller
‘Disturbia’ is aimed fair and square at the ‘youth’
market, but, even with its zappy technology, any teenager
with a knowledge of cinema history would spot this movie as
a re-hash of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 classic ‘Rear
Window’. Even though the movie has been thoroughly up-dated,
it still closely follows the Master’s original story,
though Alfred would probably never have approved of the gruesome
finale, which has been tacked-on to make the movie more fashionably
violent. What is annoying about the movie is that even though
it follows Hitchcock’s story and structure, it makes
no concessions to its sources and references, preferring to
pose as something new and original. The movie is certainly
not inventive! It is only another dull example of Hollywood
re-working its past glories, and trying to pass them off to
an unsuspecting younger audience. What is interesting, though,
is that Alfred Hitchcock’s original movie was a ‘smash-hit’
in its time, and this bad current re-make is also a huge ‘smash-hit’.
It just goes to prove ‘that when you are onto a good
thing, stick with it’!
Unrest
This weird ghost story, ‘Unrest’, directed by
Jason Todd Ipson, and set in a medical school’s mortuary,
claims to have won many Horror Film Awards. It also claims
to be “the first film to use real bodies”. So,
what do we have here? A post-modern ‘snuff’ movie?
Please, forget it. The movie is abysmal!
