The Age of Commercialism

Awesome Movie

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Blistering performances.

Ernie and Dave were butchers in the army (during the opening credits photos of them in their uniforms, along with Sunny, are shown). They open their own butcher shop, and Ernie is married to Sunny. Ernie is abusive, and Sunny is cheating on him. And the door to the freezer in the butcher shop keeps closing and locking when someone is inside.John Lithgow is at his best playing nervous characters who panic over every little thing. Of course, in this movie his character has plenty of reason to be nervous, and it doesn't help that Sunny is hiding some very important information from him. Teri Garr is not only good-looking but comes across as quite calm and pretty much in control. Randy Quaid is quite goofy as the detective Sunny hires to help her divorce Ernie. Like Dave, the detective also thinks he knows something that we know isn't true, and the results can be quite funny.This wasn't all that great at first, but as the situations got sillier, I was really enjoying it. I've seen better movies like this, but this was pretty good.

I agree that this movie is underrated. The cast is perfect for the material, and it has a clever story with lots of surprises along the way. My only complaint is that it's too short, and that it could have maybe gone a little further with the dark humor. It seems to hold back and play it safe a lot of the time. Other than that it's a great movie!

Strangely panned by many critics yet this is actually a funny, black comedy about small-time accidents, coincidences, misunderstandings, failed scheming and murder amongst friends and spouses that has a lot more wit than the overrated Blood Simple. The plot is tight, the humor is delightfully droll and the next-door type characters are well-drawn and fun to watch despite their nastiness, simply because of the blackly amusing circumstances they find themselves in.This did not deserve to become so obscure. Re-issue it on DVD please.

*********Minor spoiler contained below********* This is easily one of my favorite ten movies.The deadpan performances witty and quips between characters (the scene where Lester Atlas visits Dave at the butcher shop while he's trying to `dispose' of a corpse is absolutely hilarious!) are what make this movie shine. However, this kind of morbid humor is not for everyone, but to those of us who enjoy this brand of sick humor, enjoy!"Out Cold" definitely deserves more credit than it's been given, and if you give it a chance, it won't disappoint you. My Rating: Ten stars out of ten.P.S. If you enjoyed Randy Quaid in "Out Cold", you might enjoy him in the even lesser-known film entitled "Parents". You are warned, though. `Parents' isn't a comedy; it's a very disturbing satirical look at American consumerism in the 1950's. However, it is ones of the few chances where you get a chance to see how good of an actor Randy Quaid actually is.