Snow Day (film)

Snow Day
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Chris Koch
Written by	Will McRobb Chris Viscardi
Produced by	Albie Hecht Julia Pistor
Starring	Chris Elliott Mark Webber Jean Smart Chevy Chase Eric Arnold
Cinematography	Robbie Greenberg
Edited by	David Finfer
Music by	Steve Bartek
Production companies	Nickelodeon Movies C.O.R.E.
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	February 11, 2000 (2000-02-11) (United States)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$13 million
Box office	$62.5 million

Snow Day is a 2000 American comedy film, directed by Chris Koch and produced by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. It premiered on January 29, 2000, and was theatrically released on February 11, 2000. It was met with generally negative reviews, but was a box office success, and Hoku's "Another Dumb Blonde" became the biggest chart smash of her career. It was released on home video on October 3, 2000, and re-released on September 26, 2017.

Plot[]

The film opens with a narration by Hal Brandston, (Mark Webber) explaining how a snowflake is formed. It changes to his father, a news reporter named Tom Brandston (Chevy Chase) giving the weather report before walking away backstage, annoyed with his job, before seeing another reporter, Chad Symmonz, (John Schneider) who tries to be better than him, giving a false report on a forecast; this makes him resent Chad even further. The film then changes to Hal, trying to get noticed by Claire Bonner (Emmanuelle Chriqui), a girl that he really likes. After he slips and falls in a swimming pool, he notices her anklet, with a whale charm, at the bottom. He swims over and grabs it, wanting to return it to her, but he expresses that he is too shy to talk to her. The film then changes focus to a group of elementary school students, led by Hal's sister, Natalie (), who wants to have a snow day. She hits the principal, Mr. Weaver, with a snowball. (This becomes a running gag, quite literally, where he gets hit with numerous snowballs by unseen kids and gets no help from onlookers). When she wishes for it to snow that night, Tom notices a huge snowstorm that will happen overnight, proving Chad's forecast wrong.

Waking up the next morning, Natalie notices snow all over town, and all the kids cheer, after their school is announced to be closed for a snow day (much to Mr. Weaver's dismay). Right before she goes outside, Natalie notices a mean snowplow driver, who the kids call "Snowplow Man" (Chris Elliott), plowing the streets. Meanwhile, Hal tries to win Claire's heart, while still trying to return her anklet, with the help of his best friend, Lane Leonard (Schuyler Fisk), who secretly harbors feelings for him. Back at home, his and Natalie's workaholic mother, Laura Brandston (Jean Smart), are stuck at home with their mischievous younger brother, Randy, who is bored to death and wants to go play in the snow.

Natalie and her friends, Wayne (Josh Peck) and Chet (Jade Yorker), build an igloo, but it is quickly destroyed by the Snowplow Man, who gets revenge on them for hitting him with a snowball. They eventually come up with a plan to take over the plow and move all the snow back in the streets so they could have a second snow day. They use Wayne as bait by pouring ketchup on him and having him pretending to be dead. As the Snowplow Man checks out the scene, Natalie and Chet steal his pet black-billed magpie, Trudy, so he kidnaps Wayne, wanting an exchange for her. After he refuses to give them a second snow day, but still returning Wayne and Trudy, Natalie decides that extreme measures need to be taken.

After trying to talk to Claire many times, even going to her house, only to see that everyone found out about her break-up with her mean and ill-tempered boyfriend, Chuck Wheeler (David Paetkau), Hal decides to see how things end up between them. He and Claire share a look after she and Chuck ride away on his snowmobile. Hal decides to try another way of getting her attention—by going to the ice rink, and Lane lures the boring disc jockey (Iggy Pop) into the bathroom. Hal takes advantage of the stereo system and talks to Claire, in front of everyone, and Chuck, who views Hal as a target for his "House Of Pain". Later, Hal tries to get Claire's attention again by making a whale-shaped figure in the snow with a shovel (only to learn she likes zebras). Chuck finds him though, while following her, and tries to attack him, but he reveals he is not afraid of him. He runs and jumps on Chuck's snowmobile, riding away into the woods, with Chuck and his followers gaining on him. But Chuck is quickly outsmarted and lands into a soccer goal net. Then Hal and Lane have a spat about what happened, and, in anger and disappointment, she lands a kiss on him, making him realize that his misplaced love was for her instead of Claire.

Elsewhere, Tom is reporting at Suicide Hill, a snow sledding hill, and at an ice-sculpting contest. After noticing a statue of Chad, which infuriates him so much, he tries to take the sculpting kid's ice pick, intending on destroying it. But when it falls, Chad begins humiliating Tom, so he tries asking him where snow comes from. Chad, trying to save himself, slowly ends up revealing that he is a fraud. The crowd calls him a loser, and he leaves for good, after the crowd cheers Tom's name, bringing his career back up.

That night, Natalie and Chet reveal that they gathered all the kids in town to confront the Snowplow Man, as he makes his way to the last snow covered street. Snowplow Man is overwhelmed by the kids as he is tied up to a "Slow Down Children Playing" sign, but he declares that he's already won since all the other streets have already been plowed. Natalie and Chet then reveal their intention to steal his snowplow and "un-plow" all the other streets, much to The Snowplow Man's dismay and protests. Later, Hal reflects about Claire's liking for zebras and his sudden realization that he loves Lane instead of Claire; he is even encouraged by Claire to go after her. After one last stand to Chuck, and almost being beaten senseless, Natalie plows right into him, who gets covered in snow, unable to get out, and rescuing Hal in the process. Hal finally admits to Lane that he loves her and they share a kiss, much to her joy. Natalie is happy that she and her friends finally got a second snow day, and they drive the plow away. Laura takes the day off to look after Randy, even playing in the snow with him. Having found new paths in their lives, the Brandstons, Lane, and Claire are finally happy.

When Mr. Weaver gets home, thinking he is safe, the kids (who somehow got into there), hit him with a lot of snowballs as he cries in defeat and the film ends.

Cast[]

This is the first of two films to star both Josh Peck and Zena Grey, the other being Max Keeble's Big Move, released the following year.

Production[]

In February 1999, it was announced Nick and Paramount would team on Snow Day.^[1] The film was filmed in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, as well as Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta. Much of the outdoor snow scenes were filmed at the Bonnie Doon Park in Edmonton, which had recently had a do-over and offered a natural setting in an urban location.

It was originally set to be based on the television series The Adventures of Pete & Pete, but the idea was scrapped and it was rewritten as a stand-alone story.

Reception[]

Box office[]

The film opened at number three at the North American box office, making $14.3 million USD in its first weekend, behind The Beach, The Tigger Movie, Scream 3, the latter of which was on its second week at the top spot. Snow Day was a box office success, earning $60,020,107 in its domestic run, and $62,464,731 worldwide.^[2]

Critical response[]

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported the film holds an approval rating of 29% based on 66 reviews, with an average score of 4.26/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Weak assembly of characters and story lines made this movie forgettable and silly."^[3] Metacritic gives it a weighted average score of 34 out of 100, based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews."^[4] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale.^[5]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "An uninspired assembly of characters and story lines that interrupt one another." Aside from the film itself Ebert also complained saying, "What a thoughtless place is Hollywood, and what talent it must feel free to waste" noting that Pam Grier had been given another "lousy role" after her "wonderful performance" in Jackie Brown.^[6] Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman wrote "Even Snow Day's winter wonderland looks fake," and gave it a grade F.^[7]

Accolades[]

Soundtrack[]

The film's soundtrack peaked at number 183 on the Billboard 200 chart.^[8]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[9]

The following songs were included in the film but not featured on the soundtrack:

• Al Martino – "Love Letters", "Fascination" and "To Each His Own"
• Irving Berlin – "Heat Wave"
• Smash Mouth – "Satellite"
• Ernest Gold – "The Big W"
• Simon Chardiet – "Drag Blob"
• The Wiseguys – "Ooh La La"
• Schuyler Fisk – "It's Not Her"
• The Brian Setzer Orchestra – "Switchblade 327"

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Snow Day (film)

• Snow Day at IMDb 
• Snow Day at the TCM Movie Database
• Snow Day at AllMovie
• Snow Day at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Snow Day at Rotten Tomatoes