Snow Job
When Matt (Ventimiglia)’s high-flying job on Wall Street falls through the day after graduation, he is left with no option but to work for his Uncle in Buffalo to pay off his student debts...
When Matt (Ventimiglia)’s high-flying job on Wall Street falls through the day after graduation, he is left with no option but to work for his Uncle in Buffalo to pay off his student debts. However his three college friends, led by Eddie (American Pie) Kaye Thomas, decide to kidnap him for fear of him making the wrong move in life. Arriving in Aspen, Colorado, where his friends plan to work for a year, deciding on what to do with their lives, Matt is set on leaving for Buffalo. That is until he meets Ski-instructor Michelle (Lawson)….
Marketing – the art of making something seem more appealing than it actually is, something that is present in the Snow Job[eb] package. Marketed as a comedy, Snow Job isn't really. Despite the funny antics on the cover and menu screen, it is essentially a lighthearted tale about finding yourself and coming to terms with who you want to be rather than who you are expected to be. There are some funny moments towards the end of the movie, and the film-makers obviously tried to make this [b]American Pie on snow, even going as far as to cast Thomas (Finch from Pie) in an attempt to appeal to that market. 2nd Bond George Lazenby plays their age-weary guru, but is criminally underused and appears at such odd moments that "hasty editing" cries out to you.
The story is nothing new and the characters are paper-thin. Matt’s friend Tyler is a good example of this. Stereotypical stoner, he has nothing to do throughout the movie, and despite being there for comedic value, failed to raise a single laugh from me. Thomas also rarely has any screen time of depth, and is used as an attempt at gross-out which is just too hamfisted to make you laugh. The direction is run of the mill at best and not helped by some poor editing which doesn’t allow a scene long enough to run to have any impact on the audience. Only one scene had any real impact, demonstrating those moments when away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, you can take a moment to see some perspective of where you are and where you want to be, set against the beautiful mountainous landscape of Aspen, Colorado.
Ultimately though, there's nothing special about this movie, but it's pretty inoffensive and running at 90 minutes, it's over just before it outstays its welcome.
The DVD transfer is okay after a terribly grainy first scene, but it does suffer with grain on most of the snow scenes. Colour seems to have been balanced for the snow scenes, leaving others over saturated at times, with bleed in the darker scenes. I also found the 5.1 sound mix to be too low on the centre speaker, making dialogue hard to hear when the rear channels were active.
The only extra present is a trailer, which takes the handful of funny moments and edits them together with an uplifting tune to make the movie look like American Pie It's not, not even close. Also included is a trailer for May, a teen horror \ thriller movie on appearance, but if the marketing is the same for that as on this movie, it may well be a weepy love story.
All in all an uninspiring movie dumped without much care or attention on to DVD. I’m sure the packaging will help it sell a few more copies, but mostly from the bargain bin.
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