This is a good film, I really enjoyed it. It made me laugh, made me cry, and even made me get up and do a little tango in my loungeroom while no-one was watching.
I’m that kind of cat.
Out Cold is about a bunch of goof-off’s who live and work at a mountain ski resort. They get drunk, they party, they ski, they get drunk, they ski some more and they go out and get drunk afterwards.
"Speaking of testicles, let me get a beer." |
Then one day, a big bad wolf (Lee Majors) buys their mountain resort and takes over, planning a classy new look and clientele and firing all the loser slobs who do nothing but drink, party and ski.
So, the losers realise they’ve been wasting their lives, clean up their acts and go back to school, becoming useful members of society again. Eventually they buy back the mountain by saving every cent they make for 40 years.
Yeah right, as if. This is the movies, not real life. How boring would that be?
What really happens is that they crack a barney and decide to take out some revenge on the Six Million Dollar Man, and get back their mountain. Cue more crazy skiing, drinking, public shagging and jokes about people sticking things in their butts.
Sure, the story has been done to death, perhaps not involving a mountain, skiing, Lee Majors and a spa, but the central idea to what is an adolescent fantasy adventure extreme sport comedy is just like any other flimsy excuse to have good looking blondes running around and guys falling off roof tops to comedic effect.
First time directors, the Malloy brothers, clearly had a bit of fun putting together some cool snowboarding and skiing, and the comedy element is good enough to elicit a few timely laughs to keep you in the swing of things.
But watching this brought to mind a bit of a bugbear I have. Basically, what is it with the concept of extreme sports? You get a dumb guy to slide down a hill on a fridge door, and that’s an extreme sport? That’s neither extreme, nor sport. Try making toast with a flamethrower and a baby while drunk. Try driving your car from the boot, while blindfolded and on fire. Try eating a whole 21 piece KFC Greasy-Bucket-O-Death in one sitting. Try wearing your underpants on the outside and getting a job as a wharfie. Try power-walking like John Howard without people laughing at you. Well, okay, that last one’s just plain stupid. But the others, oh the others are bloody extreme alright.
No, we’re not talking about bleached blonde surfie types attaching a hang-glider to their boards here, that’s for show-off pansies who drive Saab convertibles and have dodgy names like Jeremy and Cal. No, what I’m talking about is attaching a Blackhawk helicopter to the roof of our cars and jet powered donuts to our testicles and climbing to 300 feet and throwing petrol filled condoms down at our neighbours while screaming out the lyrics to Achy Breaky Heart!
Now that’s extreme sport!
The transfer is framed at 1.78:1 not 1.85:1, but I can live with that and yes, it’s 16:9 enhanced. In the footage of the ski stunts at the start the grain looks much more pronounced than the rest of the film. It’s also a little soft, with no shot really ever appearing too sharp at all, but it’s essentially blemish free, and there aren’t any transfer issues worth bringing to your attention. ‘Vibrant’ isn’t a word I’d use to describe the colour, the picture looking like it lacks oomph and tending to appear a bit dull with the exception of one or two scenes. But then again, most of the scenery outdoors involves snow and there’s not too much colour in snow, is there? Indoors it’s mostly brownish and a bit dark, but the picture looks fine and the transfer handles this fine.
A good, harmless, inoffensive fun film, with just enough laughs to keep me amused, just enough skiing to not make me bored, and just enough Victoria Silvstedt to make me frustrated. It’s a silly forgettable story, but they’re not aiming to make the AFI Top 100 list, so with your brain sedated with just enough booze or fatty foods, you should have a good enough time with this.