Okay, let's be blunt: I can't focus on a damned thing today because it's only about an hour before I head out to a local chilli festival, and all I can really think about is the diabolical, delicious pain that awaits me. It'll hopefully be a lovely end to a few very hard weeks at work, and I have firm plans to burn out both my tastebuds and my bank balance.
Today I'm tingling with anticipation, but last night I was flat-out exhausted. Moviewise, therefore, I needed something easy - nothing too emotionally demanding, and, since I didn't rate my chances of remaining awake, nothing I hadn't seen several times before.
Step forward Blades of Glory, then, which has become something of a personal favourite. The concept is high enough that it can be summarised in a sentence or so: two warring figure skaters are forced to compete as a pair. It's a classic odd couple movie, with a generous helping of sports movie tropes thrown in for good measure. Oh, and it's a complete and utter delight.
It shouldn't be, not with Jon Heder and Will Ferrell in the lead roles. I don't think anybody would argue that the world of figure skating, with its sequins and fake smiles and impenetrable jargon, is ripe for lampooning, but I'd never have thought these two were the ones to do it. As detail-obsessed Jimmy MacElroy and substance abuser Chazz Michael Michaels, however, they give us a pair of protagonists so endearingly awful that it's near-impossible not to cheer them on as they go for gold.
In the opposite corner, meanwhile, where one might reasonably expect a couple of icy Russians, we have pathological attention seekers Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg, played with gleeful malice by Will Arnett and Amy Poehler, at the time a married couple. They're joyfully over the top, and as hissable a pair of villains as you could find outside of a traditional pantomime.
My favourite, however, is Craig T Nelson as Coach, embodying pretty much every cliche in the book except (spoiler) for the one where the mentor figure dies at the end. He's there as our heroes soar into the record books, smiling in delight.
Just like I do, every single time I watch.
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