Get ready to take a vicarious trip through Iceland with Land Ho!’s Mitch & Colin in this quick glimpse at the newly available film. In conjunction with Land Ho!‘s DVD & VOD release yesterday, you can now check out the first 10 minutes of this breakout Sundance Film Festival hit online. The movie, which went on from Sundance to play the Tribeca Film Festival, LAFF, as well as Iceland’s own Reykjavik Film Festival, is a delightful road comedy featuring beautiful Icelandic landscapes and two hilarious performances from the film’s stars Earl Lynn Nelson and Paul Eenhoorn.

Co-written & co-directed by Aaron Katz and Martha Stephens, Land Ho! tracks a pair of former brother-in-laws who reconnect on a road trip through Iceland where they take in the views, eat good food and approach younger women. With shades of The Bucket List minus that film’s heaps of sentimentality, Land Ho! is a thoroughly entertaining adventure set to classic synthpop 80s tunes. Both Nelson and Eenhoorn deliver very charming, funny performances as the film’s protagonists, men who won’t let their age define them.

Watch the exclusive first 10 minutes of Land Ho! below and check out Land Ho! out now on Blu-ray Combo Pack and Digital HD.

Four years ago indie filmmaker Aaron Katz gave us a delightful treat with his film Cold Weather, however, the director has been absent ever since. Katz finally re-surfaced in Park City where his latest film Land Ho! premiered during the Sundance Film Festival. Co-directed by Martha Stephens, Land Ho! is about two retired former brothers-in-law who reunite for an exciting road trip through Iceland. The two men bond during their otherworldly Iceland adventure, while hitting some speed bumps along the way. I’m very excited to see Paul Eenhoorn perform again after his brilliant role in the severely under-watched This Is Martin Bonner.

You’ll find the official trailer and poster for the film below.

Land Ho! Official Trailer

Official Poster for Land Ho!

Cold Weather is a low-budget indie film by Aaron Katz that firmly believes less is more, focusing often on subtle interactions between characters. The film’s dialog is natural enough to be considered mumblecore, meaning seemingly improvised. Cold Weather goes to great lengths to show just how ordinary the twentysomething character’s daily lives are before they are blindsided by the mystery that unfolds.

Doug (Cris Lankenau) dropped out of a forensic science program in college but still hopes to one day become a detective. After interning in a kitchen for two months without pay he settles on a job in an ice making factory. He has recently moved from Chicago into a small apartment with his sister, Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn), in Portland.

Oddly enough Doug’s ex-girlfriend Rachel (Robyn Rikoon) is in town for a potential job opening so the two hang out together again. It must have not been too bad of a break up because the two seem more like close friends than ex-lovers. She tells him she wants to check out his place and he casually invites her over for board games.

Joining them for a night of board games is Doug’s new friend from the ice making factory, Carlos (Raul Castillo). The group hit it off rather well and hangs out together on a couple different occasions. Carlos brings up the fact he is looking for someone to attend a Star Trek convention with him but Doug has no interest. However, come to find out that Rachel is a Star Trek fan so Carlos asks Doug if it is okay to invite her to go with. Since their relationship is strictly friends at this point he responds, “I’m totally fine with it. And you guys are dorks.”

Carlos and Rachel attend the convention and supposedly had a great time there. Carlos becomes very paranoid when she does not end up showing up for their second “date”. He is so worried he frantically calls Doug five times while he is sleeping and eventually stops over. Doug thinks Carlos has been taking the Sherlock Holmes books he had recently lent him far too seriously.

This dream of being a detective finally comes true when Carlos presents enough evidence to get Doug to side with him. The two get to act out their fantasy playing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as they try to find clues to Rachel’s disappearance. Although, Carlos is not as willing to skip work as Doug is, so he eventually brings Gail in to be his side-kick.

Cris Lankenau plays the part of Doug perfectly as if the role was written for him. Which could very well be the case considering Katz was one of the writers of Cold Weather and Lankenau worked with Katz before in his last film Quiet City. It would be hard not to like his character and it does not take long to believe in him because of how realistic and how down-to-earth he portrays the character. The best part of it all is that you forget that he is acting.

There are at least two different parts of the film that are seat grabbing worthy. The fact Katz was able to evoke such feelings from such a low-key tempo, which it greatly benefits from, is one of the best qualities of the film. The thing I liked least about the film though was how Carlos and Rachel’s involvement to seemed to fade out even though they were initially very important to the story.

Cold Weather does not have the kind of pace that your typical detective thriller has. In fact, although the focal point of film is the thriller, it is more about the brother-sister relationship Doug and Gail have. He finds out more about her personal life while sitting in a car on a stake out than he probably ever would have otherwise. The ending may not sit well for most people, I am split on it, but it achieves the outcome it feels is important. Whether you do or not is beside the point.