Make no bones about it: Will Ferrell is big business. Especially of late, Ferrell’s oft-subtitled portrayals of dunderheaded, chauvinistic alpha males have turned to gold as soon as his name has been attached. Add in Jon Heder, who has cashed in several times over on his Napoleon Dynamite personality but still brings in the younger crowd, and it seems that Blades of Glory is destined for success. But it seems that where Ferrell’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy has reached classic status and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby was a solid offering, Blades slips as often as it sticks its landings.

Ferrell plays Chazz Michael Michaels, figure skating’s bad boy, a sexed-up cross between Neil Diamond and Ferrell’s own Ron Burgundy. Where Michaels is leather, rhinestones, and production value, though, Heder’s Jimmy MacElroy is grace, technique, and feathered bangs. When the two split a gold medal in 2003, they come to blows and are banned from men’s figure skating. Three years later, MacElroy is itching to get back into the game and exploits a loophole that allows him to skate in pairs competition. Michaels is the only person who can be ready to skate on short notice, and under the tutelage of MacElroy’s coach (Craig T. Nelson), the two must find a way to work together and turn the skating world on its head.

In many ways, Chazz Michael Michaels is like every other character Ferrell plays when headlining this kind of movie, and he throws in plenty of goofy improvisation that makes it feel like he’s doing more than just mailing the performance in. As yin to Ferrell’s unbridled yang, Heder needs to do more than just recreate his Dynamite character, and he does a noble job, but rolling his eyes and looking agape at Ferrell doesn’t seem like enough. Paired with a better straight man (Owen Wilson, perhaps), the movie could have soared.

Without a doubt, the best comedy in the movie comes from real-life husband and wife Will Arnett and Amy Poehler, who play the brother-sister skating pair Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg, the all-American rivals to the unconventional Michaels-MacElroy coupling. The Arrested Development and Saturday Night Live veterans, respectively, specializing in doing the little things that make for hilarious scenes. As their sister Katie, Jenna Fischer is a brilliant straightwoman; her work on The Office has trained her to do absolutely nothing and be funny at the same time. And yes, okay, she is also part of the most memorable scene of the year, but I’m not going to get into that, because we’re more or less a PG-13 blog.

Blades of Glory isn’t gut-bustingly funny, and it far from tops Ferrell’s list of accomplishments, but it’s an enjoyable 90 minutes nonetheless. There are plenty of delightfully random cameos to keep the movie rolling along, and those not dedicated to Ferrell’s oeuvre will enjoy it, but there are plenty of more worthwhile movies coming down the pike.

Rating: * * 1/2 of 5

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