BLADES OF GLORY

Chazz and Jimmy are two professional ice skaters. After getting into a fight on the awards platform, they are both banned from mens figures skating permanently. Three years later Chazz works kiddie shows, drunk, while Jimmy fits bratty kids for skates in a sporting goods store. Then Jimmy's personal stalker informs him of a fabulous loophole in the skating federation's rules. He can compete again, if he switches divisions. So Jimmy contacts his old coach but is unable to find a female pairs partner. Jimmy's search for a partner leads him to Chazz, and his coach convinces the two of them to form the first same-sex pairs team. The reigning pairs champions, the brother-sister team of Stranz and Fairchild see the new pair as a threat to their dominance and begin to conspire against Chazz and Jimmy. The pair threaten their sister Katie into spying on the new duo. In the process, she becomes acquainted with Jimmy and begins truly to care about him. Although Chazz and Jimmy are initially disgusted by each other, they eventually develop a mutual respect for one another. Chazz and Jimmy’s coach informs them that, in order to win the finals, they will need to perform a technique that has never been performed successfully before. The technique, called the Iron Lotus, is an extremely complicated maneuver that Coach developed years ago while he was still training pairs. However, it is also extremely dangerous.

The movie is funny and the scenes of figure skating with wit and ingenuity are amazing. The off-ice shenanigans, however, including a subplot involving Jimmy's infatuation with the younger sister of the reigning pairs champions, are sluggish and lose much of the momentum generated by the skating. But you shouldn't miss the last scene.