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Out Cold
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // PG-13 // May 21, 2002
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Teen comedy tailored to the season, the makers of this Wintery comedy obviously thought they could hook an audience into snowboarding. Instead, they were covered by an avalanche of other films in the marketplace. That and, well, this certainly isn't a high point in the genre, either. The film, directed by former music video brothers the Malloys, hardly gets a laugh and isn't remarkable in the technical department, either.
The film stars Lee Majors (yes, that Lee Majors) as John Majors, a businessman who would like to take over the snowy community of Bull Mountain and turn it into the next Aspen. Of course, as with most teen comedies from the eighties, there's a legion of drunken, but clever (in their own idiotic way) teens (read: actors in their late 20's) lead by Rick Rambis (Jason London) to stop the evil businessman.
The film does not offer as much a story as it does a series of gross-out skits strung together. The characters have a game that they occasionally play called "King of the Mountain" where whoever has the most beer in their glass at the end of their run down the mountain wins. Otherwise, the characters' goal seems to be to have the least beer in their glass: the film spends an awful lot of time having their characters drink - while I certainly know that people drink, that doesn't make it interesting to watch. This is also one of those PG-13 teen movies where there's a lot of female nudity...which isn't shown to the audience.
The performances from a series of no-names are nothing much. AJ Cook and Caroline Dhavernas as the two women that London's character must decide upon offer the best performances in the movie. Both are sweet and charming and both have smiles that light up the screen. They deserve a better movie. Neither London or any of the other supporting cast have much in the way of comedic timing, which should have been especially evident in London's case with his past performance in "Mallrats", where he was spectacularly overshadowed by Jason Lee.
"Out Cold" certainly won't take a place as the worst thing I've seen in ages; it's just a nothing movie - harmless, rarely entertaining, over quickly and forgotten about twice as fast.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Out Cold" is presented by Buena Vista in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The cinematography by Richard Crudo ("Down To Earth") is fairly impressive during the snowboarding sequences, but when the film settles into dialogue-driven territory, the compositions are fairly ordinary. The picture quality in this transfer by the studio is also about the same, often looking only a bit above average. The picture alternates between looking passably sharp and slightly soft.
Slight flaws are present throughout a fair amount of the movie. The film occasionally shows light-to-mild grain that, while noticable fairly frequently, is rarely that bothersome. The print also showed some minor instances of wear - a couple of specks here, a mark or two there. A couple of instances of pixelation were seen, as were a few instances of mild edge enhancement.
For a film that takes place in and around beautiful scenery, I'd expected a more vivid color palette; instead, colors tended to look fairly dreary and unappealing. Still, I'd guess they looked that way theatrically, as well.
SOUND: "Out Cold" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The soundtrack is about as uninspired as the movie. Aside from the wall-to-wall series of pop tunes throughout the pciture, there are hardly any elements that are offered by the surrounds - almost everything here is rooted in the front speakers. Audio quality wasn't too thrilling, as the songs sounded flat and uninvolving and dialogue remained fairly clear and easily understood.
MENUS: Static menus with no animation, but outdoor sounds in the background.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from directors the Malloys and...their Grandma Rose. No, I'm not kidding. The three actually have a funny dynamic, as the brothers discuss what it was like to make their feature debut while their Grandmother comments on what she thinks of the performances and talks about what she thinks of the raunchy humor. There are a few instances of cursing from the brothers, which is suprisingly bleeped.
Also: 9 deleted scenes as well as two featurettes, Greetings From Bull Mountain and King of the Mountain. The first featurette is fairly promotional, but has some funny behind-the-scenes moments. The second is essentially a music video, working with clips of the stunts. As per usual, "Sneak Peek" trailers for other Disney titles are included - this time out, there's "Corky Romano" and "New Port South".
Final Thoughts: "Out Cold" is a fairly dull comedy that never brought much to the table in the way of laughs or entertainment. Buena Vista has put together a DVD with decent audio/video quality and some supplements that are actually halfway fun.
Teen comedy tailored to the season, the makers of this Wintery comedy obviously thought they could hook an audience into snowboarding. Instead, they were covered by an avalanche of other films in the marketplace. That and, well, this certainly isn't a high point in the genre, either. The film, directed by former music video brothers the Malloys, hardly gets a laugh and isn't remarkable in the technical department, either.
The film stars Lee Majors (yes, that Lee Majors) as John Majors, a businessman who would like to take over the snowy community of Bull Mountain and turn it into the next Aspen. Of course, as with most teen comedies from the eighties, there's a legion of drunken, but clever (in their own idiotic way) teens (read: actors in their late 20's) lead by Rick Rambis (Jason London) to stop the evil businessman.
The film does not offer as much a story as it does a series of gross-out skits strung together. The characters have a game that they occasionally play called "King of the Mountain" where whoever has the most beer in their glass at the end of their run down the mountain wins. Otherwise, the characters' goal seems to be to have the least beer in their glass: the film spends an awful lot of time having their characters drink - while I certainly know that people drink, that doesn't make it interesting to watch. This is also one of those PG-13 teen movies where there's a lot of female nudity...which isn't shown to the audience.
The performances from a series of no-names are nothing much. AJ Cook and Caroline Dhavernas as the two women that London's character must decide upon offer the best performances in the movie. Both are sweet and charming and both have smiles that light up the screen. They deserve a better movie. Neither London or any of the other supporting cast have much in the way of comedic timing, which should have been especially evident in London's case with his past performance in "Mallrats", where he was spectacularly overshadowed by Jason Lee.
"Out Cold" certainly won't take a place as the worst thing I've seen in ages; it's just a nothing movie - harmless, rarely entertaining, over quickly and forgotten about twice as fast.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Out Cold" is presented by Buena Vista in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The cinematography by Richard Crudo ("Down To Earth") is fairly impressive during the snowboarding sequences, but when the film settles into dialogue-driven territory, the compositions are fairly ordinary. The picture quality in this transfer by the studio is also about the same, often looking only a bit above average. The picture alternates between looking passably sharp and slightly soft.
Slight flaws are present throughout a fair amount of the movie. The film occasionally shows light-to-mild grain that, while noticable fairly frequently, is rarely that bothersome. The print also showed some minor instances of wear - a couple of specks here, a mark or two there. A couple of instances of pixelation were seen, as were a few instances of mild edge enhancement.
For a film that takes place in and around beautiful scenery, I'd expected a more vivid color palette; instead, colors tended to look fairly dreary and unappealing. Still, I'd guess they looked that way theatrically, as well.
SOUND: "Out Cold" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The soundtrack is about as uninspired as the movie. Aside from the wall-to-wall series of pop tunes throughout the pciture, there are hardly any elements that are offered by the surrounds - almost everything here is rooted in the front speakers. Audio quality wasn't too thrilling, as the songs sounded flat and uninvolving and dialogue remained fairly clear and easily understood.
MENUS: Static menus with no animation, but outdoor sounds in the background.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from directors the Malloys and...their Grandma Rose. No, I'm not kidding. The three actually have a funny dynamic, as the brothers discuss what it was like to make their feature debut while their Grandmother comments on what she thinks of the performances and talks about what she thinks of the raunchy humor. There are a few instances of cursing from the brothers, which is suprisingly bleeped.
Also: 9 deleted scenes as well as two featurettes, Greetings From Bull Mountain and King of the Mountain. The first featurette is fairly promotional, but has some funny behind-the-scenes moments. The second is essentially a music video, working with clips of the stunts. As per usual, "Sneak Peek" trailers for other Disney titles are included - this time out, there's "Corky Romano" and "New Port South".
Final Thoughts: "Out Cold" is a fairly dull comedy that never brought much to the table in the way of laughs or entertainment. Buena Vista has put together a DVD with decent audio/video quality and some supplements that are actually halfway fun.
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