Blades of Glory

In 2003, two skaters — Chazz Michael Michaels (played by Will Ferrell) and James "Jimmy" MacElroy (played by Jon Heder) — have been banned from the Men's Singles Skaters after a fight between the two skaters. After going through a slump in their lives, Jimmy discovered a loophole with the help of his stalker Hector saying that he can compete in the doubles even though he's been banned. Jimmy gains the help of his coach, but is unable to find a female partner, so they enlist the help of his rival Chazz to compete in the Figure Skating Championships. The two must overcome mutual dislike, limited time to prepare, their coach's secret past, and the dirty tricks of their main opponents, the Van Waldenberg siblings. The key to victory or defeat may lie in the attraction of Jimmy towards Katie, the Van Waldenbergs' little sister.

---

This movie contains the following tropes:

• Actor Allusion: Chazz and Jimmy's coach is Coach and Katie is a beleaguered assistant.
• Aerith and Bob: Stranz, Fairchild, and - Katie.
• Anything That Moves: Chazz is such a sex addict that when he goes to therapy, he can't help hitting on other patients, by telling them about previous sexual encounters in great detail.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Katie.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Stranz and Fairchild.
• Bland-Name Product: "But wait!", you say. "Winter Olympics figure skating rules specifically state that a pairs team must be a man and a woman!" Well, these are the World Winter Sport Games.
  • By the same token, many of the moves they make are illegal in Real Life Winter Olympics. Luckily for them, they're not competing in the Olympics.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The Van Waldenberg siblings.
• Brother-Sister Incest: Stranz and Fairchild
  • Also a possible in-joke, considering that Will Arnett and Amy Poehler are married in real life.
  • This would also be Twincest.
• Butt Monkey: Katie at the hands of her siblings.
• The Cameo: Several famous figure-skaters make cameos as themselves. Notably Olympian Alexandra Pauline "Sasha" Cohen is apparently a disturbingly enthusiastic Chazz fangirl in universe.
• Casanova: Chazz
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Stranz and Fairchild's many attempts which include: attempting to capture Chazz and Jimmy, and spraining Chazz's ankle when Fairchild pulls off her pearls and one of his skates rolls over it.
• Cool Toy: Chazz' specially-made brush.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The Iron Lotus may be the most dangerous figure skating technique ever; when performed incorrectly, someone usually gets decapitated.
• Did Not Do the Research: That song is called "My Hump", not "Lady Humps". Every line Chazz sings has at least one or two words wrong.
• The Dragon: Deconstructed. Though Katie does serve as this to her siblings, she only does so because they're blackmailing her by using their parents' accident against her, and is clearly against their plan from the get-go. She ultimately stands up to them and pulls a Heel-Face Turn.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: Even the death of Marilyn Monroe! Naturally, this is very much Truth in Television for most figure skaters, especially the ballroom dancing on skates ice dancers.
• Fallen-On-Hard-Times Job: Children's ice shows? Sporting-goods clerk? These are tailor-made movie nadirs from which to launch a comeback.
• Fan Service: Jenna Fischer in lingerie.
• Gainax Ending: The last scene was...unexpected.
• Heroes Want Redheads: Katie
• Hey, It's That Guy!: The judge who bans the pair from skating is Mr Feeny
  • And Luke Wilson is the sex therapist.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood
• I Am the Trope:

Chazz: I am ice skating!

• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Chazz
• Large Ham: Chazz, again.
• Low Speed Chase: There's a hilarious chase scene between one of the protagonists and antagonists which happens while they're both wearing ice skates — on pavement.
• Manipulative Bastards: Stranz and Fairchild wring as much guilt out of Katie for accidentally being the cause of their parents' deaths as humanly possible. She breaks free by declaring that their parents were the cause (or at least large contributors) of the accident.
• Nice Gal: The all-too-cute and wholesome Katie.
• Not What It Looks Like: Jimmy walking in on Chazz groping Katie after she was sent to seduce him and break up the team.
• Odd Name Out: The Van Waldenberg siblings: Stranz, Fairchild, and Katie.
• Of Corsets Sexy: Hi there, Jenna Fischer.
• Off With Her Head: In the Iron Lotus video the coach shows, a North Korean gets her head chopped off when they perform the move.
• Parental Abandonment: Jimmy's adopted father disowns him after he's kicked out of men's figure skating for brawling with Chazz.
• Playing Against Type: Jon Heder is usually known for playing snarky nerds. Ferrell is perfectly typecast though.
• Pun-Based Title
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Jimmy's peacock costume was inspired by male figure skater Johnny Weir's swan-based costume, complete with the glove representing the beak.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Chazz and Jimmy, notably in the theme for their first competition together, "Fire and Ice".
• Refuge in Audacity: Everything Stranz and Fairchild do.
• Riding Into the Sunset: Chazz and Jimmy ride out of the arena into space on rocket skates after winning the skating Championships.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Jimmy and Chazz. Just look at them.
• Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer: The Van Waldenbergs in general but especially Katie.
• Slap Slap Kiss: Stranz and Fairchild at the end.
• Stalker with a Crush: Hector! And he's really creepy about it.

Hector: I totally want to cut off your skin and wear it to my birthday... it's coming up...

• Tropaholics Anonymous: Chazz goes to one of these meetings for sex addicts. None of them seem to be making any progress though.
  • Considering Chazz's rather lurid story at the meeting, it's no surprise they're not making any progress.
• Truth in Television: At the Vancouver Olympics there were four brother-sister ice dancing duos.
  • Everything is better with sparkles in ice skating.
    • Although YMMV on that one. On one end of the spectrum you have Johnny Weir, who would definitely agree. On the other, you have Samuel Contesti, who would not.
• The Unfavorite: Katie with her brother and sister Stranz and Fairchild. They use their parents' car accident in order to make her do their dirty work.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Stranz and Fairchild are always dressed up, even when they're just relaxing at home.
  • Justified? Being the top figure skaters in the world, they have loads of endorsement deals.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Chazz, while working for a children's ice show during the three years he is banned from competition, gets drunk and throws up inside his 'evil wizard' giant costume head.