On his deathbed, will this image flash through Will Ferrell's head?
Ever since 1980, when The Blues Brothers proved there was life after Saturday Night Live, such opportunistic producers as Bernie Brillstein and Lorne Michaels have turned out an endless stream of movies based on sketches and characters made popular on NBC’s venerable comedy series. With rare exceptions, the results have been horrendous. For every decent feature-length spinoff—only Wayne’s World comes immediately to mind—there were a dozen train wrecks on the order of Coneheads, It’s Pat and Stuart Saves His Family. Even though the one-joke A Night at the Roxbury was just such a disaster, Will Ferrell’s solid acting chops allowed him to develop a comic persona that would pay off in future projects. Chris Kattan, of course, wasn’t as fortunate. The “Special Collector’s Edition” adds a trio of featurettes to what’s already available on DVD, but its main reason for existing is to piggyback on the marketing campaign for the vastly more entertaining Blades of Glory. At 40, Ferrell has gotten a bit too long in the tooth to play world-class athletes, but the television networks have turned figure skating into such a freak show it’s easy to cut him a break. We did the same while watching Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Zoolander and Talladega Nights, which spoofed industries that already had become parodies of themselves.
Here, he’s joined by 29-year-old Jon Heder, who won’t be able to pull off thinly veiled impersonations of Napoleon Dynamite much longer, either. Heder and Ferrell play rival figure skaters—one macho, the other effeminate, both banned for fighting—who patch up their differences long enough to exploit a loophole in the Olympics rule book and participate in pairs competition. As such, they’re pitted against the reigning brother-sister team of Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg (Will Arnett of Arrested Development and SNL regular Amy Poehler), who will use any devious tactic to retain their crown. They’re also very funny. The presence of real-life Olympians suggests the aim of the humor isn’t to make fun of the athletes, but to lampoon the excesses demanded of the skaters by promoters, TV producers and overly enthusiastic fans.
Before Molly Shannon reprised her nerdy Mary Katherine Gallagher character in Superstar—alongside Ferrell, natch—she also appeared in A Night at the Roxbury. She has a gift for going from sane to psycho in microseconds. In Mike White’s typically offbeat Year of the Dog, Shannon plays an executive secretary, Peggy, whose many neuroses are compounded by depression after the unexpected death of her beloved pet beagle, Pencil. In a desperate effort to cope, she takes the advice of an emotionally brittle dog-rescuer (Peter Sarsgaard) and adopts a much-abused German shepherd. The dog turns on Peggy, however, and, without her permission, is taken to the pound and put to sleep. Angry and deeply hurt, she decides to devote her energy toward animal rights, veganism and revenge. To witness the evolution of her activist spirit—and devolution of her sanity—is simultaneously hilarious and unsettling. It is to White’s credit that he allows viewers to come to their own conclusions about Peggy. Along with commentary by White and Shannon, there are several featurettes, deleted scenes, a gag reel and interviews.
Blades of Glory
***
Rated PG-13
$29.99
Year Of the Dog
****
Rated PG-13
$29.99
A Night At the Roxbury: Special Collector’s
Edition
**
Rated PG-13
$14.99