Happy Tax Day!

I don't quite know when April 15th became a day for Americans to observe/celebrate--beyond the need for procratinators to send in their income tax forms--but Starbucks is giving away free coffee and Taco Del Mar is giving away free fish tacos. Maybe THIS is all that Hope and Change that was supposed to kick in with Obama getting elected? Free coffee and fish tacos for all!

But, always one to jump on a slow-moving band wagon, I am adding to the celebration with a review of the only movie I can think of that features an IRS agent as its main chararcter.



Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Starring: Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffmann, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Emma Thompson
Director: Marc Forster
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

IRS Agent Harold Crick (Ferrell) starts hearing a voice that narrates his every action. In attempting to figure out what's going on, he discovers that he is the main character in a novel being written by an author famous for killing off her characters (Thompson). As Harold tries to figure out a way to prevent his fate, his entire life starts to change.


"Stranger Than Fiction" is a comedy that is quirky in the extreme. It's a comedic fantasy film set in a perfectly mundane world where where, somehow, a novelist's book as come to life. The premise is very intersting, if a bit sappy in its execution, and the film's witty script is presented briskly by a cast of actors who all give execellent performances. (Will Ferrell is particularly remarkable, as his lowkey performance as Harold Crick is funny, touching, and unlike anything else I've seen him do on-screen.)

This is a film that should appeal equally to lovers of romantic comedies and lovers of offbeat films with an "artsy" flavor to them.





Click here for an observance of Tax Day at Shades of Gray.

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'Blades of Glory' is a slick comedy

Blades of Glory (2007)
Starring: Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Craig T. Nelson, and Jenna Fischer
Director: Josh Gordon and Will Speck
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

After two rival skaters (Ferrell and Heder) are banned from singles figure skating for life for brawling during the medal ceremony at the Olympics, they overcome their differences and team up to become the first male/male figure skating pair. Will they transform figure skating as the world knows it, or will they meet defeat at the hands of the sociopathic figure skating team of the Van Waldenberg Twins (Arnett and Poehler) or will they be killed by their coach's (Nelson) quest to have the impossible skating move "The Iron Lotus" made a reality?


"Blades of Glory" is a fairly simple sports comedy that uses gender roles and slapstick humor to illicit huge laughs from the viewers. It's very well written, fabulously acted, and perfectly paced. Ferrell is particularly hilarious as the crude, sexaholic, self-made figure. Arnett and Poehler are almost too good as the creepy bad guys.

Allowing for the fact that the jokes aren't all that original (even if I don't think anyone has quite given us such a twisted version of the figure skating world before, nor do I think any other movie has portrayed an obsessive fan stalking a celebrity as the catalyst for something good), this is an excellent film. The very end of the denoument gets a bit dumb, as it completely breaks with the tone of the rest of the film, but otherwise it's a thoroughly hilarious experience. (The end credits has some funny bits during them, too, almost as an apology for the stupid final moments of the movie.)

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