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*I06-20*-1100
fflaison Bleu
2 South IITain Street • Wathinsville
706.76S.6420
Fon 5gem ynti, hod ~F.
Open nTon-Fri 9:30am close • Sal. 12:00 close
Reservations always accepted
A glimpse of the future
2007 MFA Exhibition
- May 6, 2007, at the Georgia Museum of Art
90 Carlton Street • www.uga.edu/gamuseum
This event is generously sponsored bv f lagoofe, the Lamar Dodd School of Art,
liewton Morn*. Charitable foundation and the friends of the Georaid Museum of A't.
FERRELL-LY FUNNY
BLADES OF GLORY (PG-13) Most Adam Sandler/
Chris Farley/ David Spade/ Rob Schneider flicks
leave me cold, and that is all right by me. Only
one man exists who can tickle my funny fancy
with his inanity, Will Ferrell. The curly-haired
giant brightens the drabbest of films, be they
"SNl" skits turned features (Night at the Roxbury
and The Ladies Man come to mind) or overrated
hits (Old School, Wedding Crashers). In Blades
of Glory, Ferrell is
the only reason this
routine sports comedy
medals. After being
exiled from male figure
skating, Chazz Michael
Michaels (Ferrell) and
Jimmy MacElroy (Jon
Heder) make history,
stunning the skat
ing world by defying
conventions as pairs
partners. Coached by
Coach himself (Craig _
T. Nelson, how we've
missed you), sex ad
dict Michaels and
MacElroy (who "looks
like a 15-year-old girl,
but not hot") put aside their differences to return
to iced glory. Strangely, for a film about pairs
figure skating. Blades sure is a single skater's
show. Ferrell, channeling his inner Neil Diamond
into the hilarious, '70s-styled "Chazzle dazzle" •
of "sex on ice," revives the DOA jokes of Jeff and
Craig Cox, whose screenplay is based on a story
co-credited to Busy Phillips (?!) of ' Freaks and
Geeks." Ferrell takes his parody seriously. He is a
superb character actor who doesn't tell jokes or
repeat dialogue; he becomes Ron Burgundy, Ricky
Bobby, and Chazz Michael Michaels. While none
of his comedic costars—Heder, Will Arnett, Amy
Poehler, Jenna Fischer and Rob Corddry—can
skate for more than a laugh or two without stum
bling on the horrendously bumpy jokes, Ferrell is
triple lutzing and Salchowing like Michelle Kwan.
Arnett seems particularly hamstrung; I laughed
more at boxing announcer Jim Lampley than
the former "Arrested
Development" standout
(counting Let’s Go to
Prison, that's two dis
appointing outings in
a row for Arnett). In
the pantheon of Ferrell
comedies, Talladega
Nights would take the
gold, Anchorman the
silver, and Blades the
Dronze. Blades should
feel no shame when
wearing its third place
medallion. Talladego
Nights was one of
last year's smartest
dumb satires, and
Anchorman quotes can
still be heard on a daily basis. Blades isn't terri
bly memorable, but it is hard not to get into the
spirit of competition when Michaels and MacElroy
first grab each other's crotches on the ice. This
unjaded flick reminds us all why Ferrell should be
Hollywood's choice to represent the good old U.S.
of A. if ever a comedy decathlon were added to
the Olympic lineup.
Drew Wheeler
Will Ferrell
TOO DICE NOIR
THE LOOKOUT (R) I've been ripping through
the pulp noir of Charlie Huston recently, so I
slipped comfortably into Get Shorty screenwriter
Scott Frank's directorial debut—a dark neo-noir
about Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt of last
year's criminally overlooked Brick), a high-school
hockey standout whose future crashed into a
stalled combine on Highway 24 along with his
Mustang, girlfriend and two passengers—without
hesitation. Now Chris can barely remember his
daily routine. He also
has trouble controlling
what he says (declar
ing his intentions to
have sex with some
one isn't much of a
conversation starter),
suffering outbursts
of fuming frustration
that are easily under
stood. A privileged
life of superstardom
awaited Chris Pratt
upon graduation; now
he has trouble getting
out of his Life Skills
class due to an in
ability to adequately sequence his day. Imagine
being so addled you cannot find the can opener
necessary to access that night's dinner, and you
can intuit Chris' frustration, which mounts with
every waking screen moment. Then he meets Gary
Spargo (Matthew Goode, Match Point), a shifty
smooth talker who claims to have dated Chris'
older sister. Creepily charismatic, Gary offers
Chris everything he's been missing since the ac
cident—a girl (Wedding Crashers' crazy-hot Isla
Fisher), his past, and most importantly, accep
tance, belonging. All Chris, the nighttime janitor
at a small-town Kansas bank, has to do is play
the part of the lookout in the heist Gary and his
crew—Marty (Morgan Kelly), Cork (Aaron Berg),
and the silent, Geddy Lee-resembling muscle,
Bone (Greg Dunham)—are planning.
Sounds simple, right? Under the supervision
of Frank, whose words have helped fashion the
two best Elmore Leonard adaptations, Get Shorty
and Out of Sight (sorry,
Jackie Brown, you've
got too much film for
your meager plot).
The Lookout is about
as simple as two ut-
standing crime thrill
ers, Blood Simple and A
Simple Plan, to whose
level this flick strives
but falls short (no
harm there, those two
Coen and Sam Raimi
films are tops in many
a critical book). Frank
gets a lot of the little
stuff right. He nails the
tragic, stupid, teenage romanticism of Chris' acci
dent and the stiff shot of humor provided by the
blind roommate (Jeff Daniels). The Lookout could
have been a bit of a tougher talker. Also, stories
like this—good guys pressed into morally ques
tionable action by really bad guys—don't usually
end like this one does. A tougher Lookout could
have scared two broken thumbs up out of me.
Drew Wheeler
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Goode
18 FLAGPOLE.COM • APRIL 4, 2007
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