MOVIE REVIEW
SNOW DAY
“Groundhog Day” for the Nickelodeon set. Gentle but funny family comedy about a blizzard that affects the lives of an embattled Syracuse meteorologist (Chevy Chase), his wife (Jean Smart) and their three kids. Chris Elliott is hilarious as an evil snowplow operator.Running time: 88 minutes. Rated: PG. At the 42nd Street E-Walk, the 84th & Broadway, the Orpheum, others.
‘SNOW Day” is sort of a “Groundhog Day” for the Nickelodeon set — a gentle but funny family comedy that will tickle kids and bring smiles to their parents’ faces.
Like “Groundhog Day,” it has a goofy weatherman — this time played not by Bill Murray but by another “Saturday Night Live” veteran, Chevy Chase.
And Chris Elliott, who co-starred in “Groundhog Day,” is on hand again — except this time, he has the best role, and top billing for the first time since “Cabin Boy.”
He’s hilarious as an evil snowplow operator determined to keep a blizzard that’s socked in Syracuse from turning into an extended school holiday.
As this movie is basically aimed at kids, the adult stars are subsidiary to the engaging young performers who play Chase’s children.
Hal (Mark Webber), the oldest, is a 10th-grader who uses the snow day to moonily pursue the girl of his dreams (gorgeous Emmanuelle Chriqui) — all the while ignoring the female friend (Schuyler Fisk, Sissy Spacek’s real-life daughter) who quietly pines for him.
His younger sister, Natalie, played by the spirited Zena Grey, is busy rallying the neighborhood kids to stop Elliott’s Snowplow Man, who carries a crow in his 10-ton rig and whose teeth are badly in need of a flossing.
The film doesn’t neglect their toddler brother (Connor Matheus), whose desire to play in the snow is frustrated by their mom’s determination to close a business deal.
In his most understated performance in years, Chase does slow burns as his boss (Pam Grier, a long way from “Foxy Brown”) forces him to don outlandish costumes — including a Jack Frost outfit — to pump up his anemic ratings. When he finally confronts and exposes his know-nothing-but-highly-rated TV rival (the toothy John “Dukes of Hazzard” Schneider), it’s delightful.
Other incidental pleasures include recurring snowball attacks on the high school principal (Damian Young) and an ice-rink deejay (Iggy Pop) whose playlist is limited to the collected works of Al Martino.
Chris Koch, a veteran TV director for Nickelodeon (which produced this movie), directs with a pleasingly light touch and brisk pacing: The movie clocks in a painless 88 minutes.
Filmed in Canada, “Snow Day” makes the most of its wintry settings and never insults the audience’s intelligence — no mean feat for a family film. It’s a real crowd-pleaser.