Janet Batchler, an instructor of mine from Act One, Inc, wrote the following blog reviewing the movie Blades of Glory.
She writes…
“As the must-see spring break movie for the tween set, we knew we were going to have to see Blades of Glory. But we didn’t expect to laugh so hard.
The movie milks what seems to be a one-joke premise for all it can get out of it: Will Farrell and a surprisingly emotive Jon Heder are banned from men’s figure skating for life after getting into a fight on the winners’ podium. But when a (slightly-funny) stalker points out that the rules don’t ban them from pairs figure skating, and when Craig T. Nelson (appropriately playing their “Coach”) steps in to train them, the movie gets going.
I was expecting 90 minutes of gay jokes. I mean, given the premise, wouldn’t you? But no. There was only one overt gay joke that I noticed. Dozens of moments of gay subtext, yes, but nothing I had to explain to my kids. The movie goes out of its way to let us know that both characters are robustly straight, then steps aside to let us laugh.
Ferrell and Heder have — dare I say it — a terrific chemistry. The obvious dual character arc (two men who hate each other enough to ruin their careers end up friends for life) works in their hands. This is a movie where a lot of actors would have held back with a little wink at the camera (“I know I look like a doofus, but I’m not really that way, it’s just the role I’m playing) in that post-Saturday Night Live attitude that ruins so much comedy. But Ferrell and Heder both commit themselves to their roles so fully that we can allow ourselves to believe their utter ridiculousness.
As an ice-skating fan (who can actually distinguish lutzes from toe loops, etc., without waiting for Scott Hamilton to tell me what I’m seeing), I enjoyed watching the send-up of the sport. The skating effects are clearly fake — no one jumps that high, spins that fast — but they’re close enough to real for us to suspend our disbelief watching. In any sports movie, it’s always a problem to work the actual game into the story. Here, the skating routines all move the story forward, and are all funny. Good job.
Blades of Glory is rated PG-13 for a reason. It was okay for my 12-year-old son (after the regular reminder that there will be bad language in this movie and just because people use it in the movie doesn’t mean he gets to use it at home or anywhere else), but really on the edge for my daughter (10). The real problem isn’t the language (only a sporadic problem) or the gay subtext. The kid-related issue is that Ferrell’s character is a sex addict, who talks about it a lot (though only acts it out onscreen a couple of mildish times — still a bit much for a 10-year-old).
However, my daughter loved the movie. Loved it. “Mom, it was so funny that I forgot to eat all my candy!” Believe me, praise doesn’t come higher than that.
Blades of Glory is not a movie for the ages. Ultimately, it’s pretty disposable. But you know, it’s also pretty funny. And sometimes an hour or so of laughing is a really good thing.”
Read more of Jan’s posts, if you like this review. She’s very smart and very funny and often writes exactly what I was thinking in my head! 
Enjoy!
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