Movie Review: 'Out Cold'

Earlier this year, a fairly funny movie called "Saving Silverman" disappeared quickly after a fatal miscalculation: The producers edited it from an R-rated sex comedy to a PG-13 slob comedy. The teen demographic wanted something racier, and the film flopped.

"Out Cold" was likewise doctored to remove nudity, but it still has an element that could appeal to young audiences in the form of some impressive snowboarding footage.

Except for the action scenes, this is a standard teen comedy, the kind where the misfits rebel against the authority figures. In an Alaskan ski village called Blue Mountain, the local goofballs maintain a tradition of reckless skiing and equally reckless partying. The king of the mountain is Rick (Jason London), a talented snowboarder whose long recovery from a tropical romance keeps him from hooking up with snow bunny Jennifer (A.J. Cook). Instead, he takes comfort in the company of his ski-lodge co-workers, including dimwitted Pigpen (Derek Hamilton), drunken Luke (Zach Galifianakis in the Steve Zahn role) and closeted gay bartender Lance (David Denman).

When a hotshot developer (Lee Majors) arrives in town and tries to buy the mountain, it looks like a great opportunity for the guys, who look forward to lucrative jobs and some private time with the developer's foxy step-daughter (Playboy playmate Victoria Silvstedt). But the bigwig's other daughter is -surprise! - Anna (Caroline Dhavernas), the young woman who broke Rick's heart in Cancun. This variation on "Animal House" tries to be "Casablanca" on skis.

Ultimately, "Out Cold" doesn't know what it is. Even though the movie retains some frat-party rudeness, the re-edited version wears a safety helmet. The only undiluted pleasure in the film is the high-altitude snowboarding, and for that the producers were smart enough to hire professionals.

"Out Cold" -- two out of four stars.