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The Movie: Movie : Out Cold It's that time of year again when the weather turns colder and thoughts turn to winter activities like ice skating, snow shoeing, skiing, ice fishing and in the last decade snow boarding. In fact snow boarding has taken over as the mountain based sport of choice for many of today's youth. The last time I went up a mountain was on a class trip over 6 years ago and even then I noticed a division occurring amongst my classmates. While I still skied a number of my friends turned to snow boarding. In recent years I've read articles and seen news reports on arguments between skiers and boarders over access to runs. Snow boarders often want equal access to runs while the skiers want them isolated to their own little area. I guess this is due to the different cultures of the groups. Most skiers find snow boarders to be irresponsible and think they cause a danger for those around them. Another stereotype is that snow borders use drugs in particular pot. It didn't help things when the first gold metal winner for Snow boarding at the Olympics tested positive for trace amounts of pot. Pot-head Ross as he is known around here even attended my high school a fact the administrators weren't entirely up front with during the controversy. I'm not going to say either way which sport is better as my knowledge base doesn't put me in a position to do so. What I do know is that Disney's new snow boarding oriented gross out comedy (released through it's Touchstone Pictures arm) is unlikely to find any additional fans simply by being a snow boarding related feature. There once was a man by the name of Papa Muntz who enjoyed nothing more in life then drinking and skiing. In fact each year he'd get plastered, put on his ski's grab another beer and head down the mountain exposing his rear in the process. Muntz owned and operated Bull Mountain and couldn't have been loved any more by his staff. One year on his run he met his demise. Now to honor his memory the staff holds an annual event called King of the Mountain where they race down the slopes to his statue. This years winner Rick Ramis (Jason London) is sort of the de facto leader of a rag tag bunch of friends including Pig Pen, a women loving oaf, the token black guy, Luke the fat stupid guy and Jenny (AJ Cook) the cute female. They hang out at the local tavern and get most of their kicks playing pranks on their friend Luke. The mountain has never been especially profitable and it's location in a remote area of Alaska doesn't help much either. So when a potential buyer is found Papa Muntz's son Ted Muntz (Willie Garrison) jumps at the chance to sell. Knowing that his staff is made up of a bunch of bumbling idiots he warns them to straighten out and fly right. The man interested in buying the mountain and creating a resort is a cowboy hat loving Texan by the name of John Majors (Lee Majors) who owns Majors Resorts. John takes an immediate liking to Rick and recruits him to do all the dirty work. To make the mountain commercially viable things need to be done like bringing in a hot tub and satellite TV, the remodeling of the local watering hole and changing the name of the mountain. All the while more subtle changes like employee drug and uniform policies are being put into effect to try and drive out the unprofessional of Rick's friends and fellow employees. Rick is torn between his friends and his new found responsibility and just when you think things can't get worse Anna the girl of Rick's dreams re-enter's his life and as it turns out she's Major's daughter. "Out Cold" is yet another in the long line of gross out teen comedies. This time things are set against a snow boarding background. It's PG-13 rating ultimately harms the film as how gross can you be without an "R" rating. There's no nudity and all sexual acts are implied rather then shown. The same goes for some of the films gags. If you've seen the trailer you've seen the majority of the films gags. There is one particularly gross gag involving a hot tubs water jets and a male body part. Other then that the film isn't even all that gross apart from a few jokes the number of which can be counted using the fingers on two hands. As a gross out comedy this one is a wipe out. So it doesn't work as a gross out comedy but does it fare better as a snow boarding flick. Admittedly this film is at it's best when there's snow boarding action on screen although that's really not saying much. The fast paced nature of the sport adds some excitement giving bored movie goers like myself something to stay awake for. These scenes were well done and used professional boarding stunt doubles. However for a movie about snow boarding there is a surprisingly few number of scenes showcasing the sport. Casting can make and break a film like this and for the most part unknowns are cast in this film. However where the kids of "American Pie" have gone on to have various levels of a Hollywood career I wouldn't expect anyone in this picture to be headlining any major projects anytime soon. Jason London is given the lead role and does all he can with his one dimensional character of Rick. London who was Randall "Pink" Floyd doesn't seem to be able to recall any of the talent that made him so good in that picture. Lee Majors who was big in the past is slumming it here much like his look alike William Shatner did in the dreadful "Miss Congeniality". I guess he like Bill needed the money. The other face that might be remotely recognizable is that of A.J. Cook who was one of the Lisbon sisters in "The Virgin Suicides". Her Jenny is barely in the picture which is a shame as she at least has some acting skill. The remainder of the cast consists of un-noteworthy performances except for Derek Hamilton's Pig Pen who tries to become this films Steve Stiffler without much success. The film's directors (yes it took two people to make this film) go by the credited name the Malloy Brothers. Emmett and Brendan make their feature with this pretty unremarkable movie. They are unable to create any laughs and don't really know what to do with the snow boarding footage either. The screenplay by Jon Zack is comprised of many generic scenes most of which have been borrowed from other films. How many times have we seen a bar being changed from a dive to some upscale wannabe 80's club. Not to mention the story line which has been used time and time again. There's a real lack of creativity present and the inexperience of the directors and writer shows in bunches. As a comedy "Out Cold" isn't particularly funny and there's just not enough snow boarding in it to recommend it on that note. The performances aren't really inspired and the story has been done before and done better. While it's far from the worst comedy I've seen all year ("Corky Romano") it's also far from the best. Those of you who are inclined to see "Out Cold" should wait until it hits DVD. Movie Rating : 5/10 Review 11/28, 2001 by Mark McLeod |