Ice skating with the stars

Will Ferrell is at his best for much of the movie playing the standard Ferrell role of a guy who is funny because he takes himself more seriously than anyone else does and sees no humor in his garish ways. A solid, quiet performance by Jon Heder and a wide array of interesting cameos help to carry the movie, but a reliance on an endless stream of bad physical humor makes this a renter. \nDon't get me wrong, there are several laugh-out-loud moments and every scene on the ice is pure gold, but most of the movie is like a "Saturday Night Live" skit: one joke stretched too thin. Those ice scenes really are fantastic with a lot of laughter coming from the preposterous moves and the ridiculous song choices (especially Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing"). \nThe action picks up at the 2002 Olympics where Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell) puts "sexy" back in Olympic figure skating exhibition as he thrusts and humps his way through his raunchy routine. Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) comes out as a peacock and wows the crowd with his flawless routine. The event is ruled a tie and a fight on the podium leads to both men's lifetime ban from individual skating.\nIn one of a series of montages, we see Michaels go on a three-year binge, which leaves him drunkenly throwing up on himself and being wildly inappropriate inside a costume at a kids' ice-capades-esque show. Meanwhile MacElroy, abandoned by his adopted father after being kicked out of skating, is working in a skate shop until he is united with Michaels as they find a loophole that allows them to compete as a doubles team.\nReal life husband and wife Will Arnett and Amy Poehler play the brother-sister skating pair well, but they're basically playing cookie-cutter versions of the characters they always play. Arnett's best scene is the one in which he awkwardly lies across a bearskin rug and Poehler is an ice-queen who has too much of a relationship with her brother for comfort.\nThe cameos are plentiful and quite entertaining, but the filmmakers severely underused the best talent in the movie. Luke Wilson is funny as a sex therapist Michaels is assigned to, Romany Malco (Conrad on "Weeds") has a too brief stint as a dance instructor, and most professional skaters and announcers you've heard of have quick appearances.\nOne role that baffled me was Craig T. Nelson as the duo's skating coach. Granted, he played "coach" in that lame TV show, but that shouldn't have led to him getting this role. He couldn't have been less funny or inspiring, while William Daniels (aka Mr. Feeny) was wildly underused.\nWhen you consider the world-class level of comedy these stars have been in before ("Anchorman," "Arrested Development," "Weeds," "Wet Hot American Summer," "Bottle Rocket," etc.) I expected a little better. Nonetheless, I was content with the movie as a way to kill an hour and a half before the Final Four started and there were enough laughs to make me want to check out the DVD to see more classic Ferrell ad-libbing at his best--even if I can't remember any lines from it.