Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Blades of Glory (2007)

This is topic Blades of Glory (2007) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 03-30-2007, 05:54 PM:

CINEMA: Rave Jefferson Pointe 18, Fort Wayne, IN
AUDITORIUM: 10
PRESENTATION: Christie DLP
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Center channel had a radically different tonal quality than the rest of the audio, RF channel had no high end at all (the horn was clearly out), and LFE? HA HA HA HA HA HA!
RATING: Two stars (out of four)

WARNING: "I never really thought of that as a romantic Spoiler"

So Screenvision has a host now? That's annoying. MAN his hair is bad.

I almost walked out fifteen minutes in (which would have been one third the time I spent watching ads and trailers) but I stuck with it, and it did get better. The first two thirds of the movie is so bad it's painful to watch. But the last third of the movie is actually kind of funny.

Kind of.

Not enough to recommend.

Posted by Matt Kerekes (Member # 2777) on 03-30-2007, 11:32 PM:

I thought the movie was hilarious. I guess you have to like stupid humor though. The second half was definitely better than the first half.

Posted by Jason Winn (Member # 3568) on 04-06-2007, 08:39 PM:

I thought it was pretty funny. It's not one of Will Ferrell's better movies, but it's still fun to watch. I liked it!

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-10-2007, 12:30 PM:

Location: Carmike 8, Lawton, OK
Auditorium: #3
Format: Christie DLP, 1998 X 1080, LPCM 5.1 audio
Rating: 2.5 stars out of 4.

Blades of Glory is funny, but only so in parts. There's a good number of funny moments not already played to death in the trailer.

Depending on the viewer's sense of humor and tolerance of deliberate stupidity they'll laugh or just think it's crap. Either way, the awkwardly flamboyant skating stuff should be enough to make your skin crawl.

At its core, this movie is essentially a star vehicle for Will Ferrel so he can do his usual bit where he immerses his stock macho slob dummy character into very odd, embarrassing situations. Overall, I don't think that bit is enough to carry an entire movie. Ferrel usually does better playing that bit in a supporting role, like he did in Old School or Wedding Crashers.

Jon Heder doesn't get to do much more than play straight man to contrast Ferrel's antics, although he did have one line I laughed hard at: "when I was 9 my father had me circumcised to reduce my wind resistance." Amy Poehler and Will Arnett (who actually married to each other) are the scheming villains, a brother-sister skating duo with incestuous leanings.

Nick Swardson had some of the funniest moments, playing a stalker of Heder's character. He gives Heder the inspiration to skate again, followed by, "I'm still going to kill you some day!"

The look and sound of this movie was adequate. Actually I thought it looked just a tad dark. The opening titles, with a lot of snow in the footage, looked a little drab. The audio mix is not very aggressive, although there are points during the skating competition scenes where discrete yells and cheers come out of the surrounds. At first I thought someone else in the audience was making the noise, but it was just the mix.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 04-11-2007, 04:37 AM:

AWFUL MOVIE! The worst this year has produced so far. Will Ferrell and Jon Heder have got to be the two worst and most annoying "actors" to ever be in movies...and to put them TOGETHER in one painful movie? No F'ing way will I sit through this.

(No I did not watch it. I give it 0 stars anyway just for the casting. [Razz]

)

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 04-11-2007, 03:09 PM:

I thought it had a few good yuks, surprisingly. Will Arnett added a nice touch.

One question: Does anyone know why Will Ferrell has that horizontal line on his stomach? He has his shirt off so often that I can't help but wonder.

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 04-11-2007, 11:07 PM:

probably from a prior gall bladder removal before laproscopic surgery.. I have one about 6" long...scar, that is. I know how excited Phil gets when I mention anything about myself and length in the same topic, or sentence.. LOL

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-12-2007, 10:00 AM:

My wife saw this in Billings, MT at the Carmike Wynnsong 10 and said it was fairly good, but that alot of the jokes were going over the heads of the audience members.

She also said that there was an annoying buzz in the sound, which wasn't too apparent during loud scenes but very prominent during quiet parts. Congratulations, Carmike....three weeks after going digital in Billings, you've figured out a way to screw it up already. Nice going! [Roll Eyes]

Not movie related, but she also mentioned that when buying her ticket, she received a ticket for "TMNT" but the ticket kid said, "Don't worry about it, just go into the Blades of Glory auditorium and it will be OK." So, when she approached the ticket taker, he said, "We're not seating for Ninja yet," whereupon she explained to him that she was really seeing Blades of Glory. The ticket taker looked blankly at her and said, "...We're not seating for Ninja yet." After two tries at explaining the situation, she finally got in to the movie.

I was a bit worried that Carmike going digital might make us look bad here in film-land, and Lynn did say the picture on the screen looked very good, but the other 75% of the experience was typical (for Montana) Carmike, so I'm not as worried.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-12-2007, 10:04 AM:

Provided the management at that particular Carmike location isn't brain dead all they need to do is call Chrisite and they'll fix whatever technical problem is happening.

My own experience is the LPCM 5.1 audio on these D-Cinema shows has been a noticeable improvement over DTS. However, the mix on Blades of Glory doesn't make the difference very obvious.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-12-2007, 12:05 PM:

Given many, many stories I've heard and personal experiences I've had over the years, I think the management of that particular Carmike is, in fact, brain dead.

Posted by Jarryd Beard (Member # 2543) on 04-12-2007, 03:28 PM:

You should definitely post feedback at carmike.com. This would ensure that someone other than the management in question would be made aware of this problem. I believe it goes to the division and district managers. I know feedback is taken very seriously at the Carmikes around here.

Posted by Kyle Anderson (Member # 3504) on 04-12-2007, 04:41 PM:

Heh... I work at a carmike with 14 digital installations; all of the ones with Dolby CP-650's (6 of them) have a noticeable buzz in the mix, and it's been going on since they've been installed (14 months now). Christie doesn't seem to care enough to send a tech to actually get the job done; oh well.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-12-2007, 06:36 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
Given many, many stories I've heard and personal experiences I've had over the years, I think the management of that particular Carmike is, in fact, brain dead.

However, that does not at all translate over to the entire circuit.

The Carmike theater in my town is one of the best movie theaters in the state of Oklahoma. In sheer presentation quality it has held that consistently against whatever new builds opened in Oklahoma City or Tulsa. The condition even remains that way today. I would be just as happy to watch a movie at the Carmike 8 in Lawton as I would in the big Cine Capris screen at Harkins' Bricktown 16 in downtown Oklahoma City.

quote: Kyle Anderson
Christie doesn't seem to care enough to send a tech to actually get the job done; oh well.

Has Christie actually been made aware of the situation?

Another factor is how personnel at Christie and AccessIT have been spread thin by trying to install hundreds upon hundreds of these systems in a relatively short amount of time.

Perhaps if the audio A/B chain in movie theaters had equipment with more standardized and simplified connections (than the typical bowl of spaghetti you get to look at on the back of any booth rack) then it would probably be a lot faster and more efficient to get a lot of these sound systems properly wired together without any odd hums and other glitches happening. That especially goes for the houses where both digital and 35mm are expected to run side by side. There's a good number of theaters that wind up losing their DTS or Dolby Digital capability when the digital projection system is dropped in because there just isn't enough time to figure out how to get both systems wired in properly. Hopefully those problems will be taken care of pretty soon.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-12-2007, 08:34 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
However, that does not at all translate over to the entire circuit.

I never said it did. I know there are some areas with well-run Carmikes -- some of whose employees post here and really care about presentation. Unfortunately, the Montana facilities are not among those well-run ones.

Posted by Justin Gorka (Member # 3727) on 04-15-2007, 02:47 PM:

Why is this drivel still produced? My Tortoise could do better.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-16-2007, 09:59 AM:

quote: Justin Gorka
Why is this drivel still produced?

Here's the reason:

quote: boxofficeguru.com
After its two-week run at the top, Will Ferrell's comedy hit Blades of Glory slipped to second place dropping a moderate 38% to an estimated $14.1M. The 17-day cume stands at a potent $90.2M.

Therefore, look for more similar drivel in the years ahead.