Blades of Glory: Pretty Much As Expected

This afternoon, since I'm at the stage where I tend to get a backache because I work for longer stretches, I took a break to see Blades of Glory. I've been thinking that in some ways, figure skating has its obvious targets for mockery, like romance novels. The costumes = the bad covers.

The movie was pretty much what I expected, meaning I was mildly amused, but certainly won't be getting the DVD. Basically, it was a Will Ferrell movie, no more, no less. He always seems to play the same sort of doofus, and I think I've seen enough.

Before we left for this new movie, I caught part of an old comedy called Ever Since Eve while I was having my lunch. (I just discovered, while looking it up on the Internet Movie Database, that the female lead was Marion Davies, better known for her relationship with William Randolph Hearst.) It was about a writer, so that got my interest, and featured the heroine pretending to be somebody she's not, sort of like the book I'm writing.

Talk about a contrast! It had no real physical comedy to speak of and there was no way it would have been allowed to have the same sort of vulgar humor, so the laughs depended on the situation, and the dialogue. Here's a sample:

Heroine's Best Friend's Boyfriend, confused about what's going on and unable to figure it out: "I'm going nuts!"

Heroine's Best Friend (dryly): "That's news?"

Later, Heroine's Best Friend's Boyfriend, still completely confused: "Then who am I?"

(Trust me, this was funny in context.)

Compared to "That (or I) put the bone in Zamboni."

I'll take Ever Since Eve.

Sidenote: We saw a trailer for Disturbia. Now, when I first saw a commercial for this, I thought they'd come up with a good twist on Rear Window. Instead of being stuck in an apartment with a broken leg, the protagonist is under house arrest, and he's a teenager. Ohhh, thinks I, that would make people a lot less inclined to believe him if he tries to tell somebody he's seen a murder.

And then I saw the trailer, which seemed to give away pretty much the entire movie. There's a marketing decision I don't understand.