Chill Factor
***
Rated on a 4-star
scale
Screening venue: Odeon (Bromborough)
Released in the UK by Warner Bros. on June 23, 2000; certificate 15; 105
minutes; country of origin USA; aspect ratio 1.85:1
Directed by Hugh Johnson; produced by
James G. Robinson. Written by Mike Cheda, Drew Gitlin.
Photographed by David Gribble; edited by Pamela
Power.
CAST.....
Cuba Gooding Jr..... Arlo
Skeet Ulrich..... Tim Mason
Peter Firth..... Capt. Andrew Brynner
David Paymer..... Dr. Richard Long
Hudson Leick..... Vaughn
Daniel Hugh Helly..... Colonel Leo Vitelli
Kevin J. O'Connor..... Telstar
Judson Mills..... Dennis
A lot of critics -- including myself -- complain
when bad movies aren't even fun on the level of camp. "Chill
Factor" doesn't have that problem. It really is so bad that it's
good. I wonder how many of my colleagues will admit that. The film does not
intend to be a parody of action movies, and there isn't a tongue-in-cheek
frame throughout; but after initially getting disheartened at its obvious
lack of quality, I started to chuckle, and by the end was laughing hard enough
to recommend it as a guilty pleasure.
The star is Cuba Gooding Jr. He hasn't been in
a good movie since "Jerry Maguire", for which he won an Academy Award --
and may well turn out to be one of those stars whose career Oscar ruins.
In "Chill Factor" he is partnered with Skeet Ulrich from "Scream", and they
play two regular guys who have to drive a refrigerated truck cross-state
while being pursued by terrorists. A dying scientist (David Paymer) has left
them with an apocalyptic chemical bomb that will detonate if its temperature
rises above fifty degrees. The villain, a shamed ex-army Captain named Brynner
(Peter Firth), wants to steal the device and sell it to some Arabs via
satellite.
Need I say that this is ridiculous? It's a demented
rip-off of "Speed", the kind you'd expect to feature Leslie Nielsen and a
lot of cartoonish "boing!" sounds. Many of the situations Gooding and Ulrich
find themselves in are "Looney Tunes"-esque, including one in which the truck
dangles off a cliff, our heroes cling to each other like scared little girls,
and then the laws of physics step aside to allow the truck to sway back onto
the road. Later it crashes, and Cuba goes berserk, swinging his arms and
screaming, as eyes pop out of his head and he swears a lot.
There is more nonsense. In one early scene, for
example, a fatal accident allows Paymer to see the effects of his bomb, and
he suddenly exclaims "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds!" with the
kind of frivolity that makes it sound like "Oh s--t!" When Paymer lies on
a coffee shop floor bleeding to death, Cuba just stands there making wisecracks
and trying to scam money from Ulrich. During the chase, the guys run down
a motorcyclist, and when his bike bursts into flames, they react by shouting
"Cool!" All of this is played straight, with pacing, music cues and special
effects that prove the director thought he was making a serious thriller.
Somehow that makes it more amusing than the same material would be if intended
as funny; there is a mean streak in me that sometimes enjoys laughing
at, rather than with. "Chill Factor" is crap, but it is one
of the only pieces of crap I have ever seen that I would recommend in a serious
review. See it on video, surrounded by loudmouthed friends, and
beer.
COPYRIGHT© 2000 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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