Chill Factor

I originally saw on HBO a few years ago now it's on Starz which I have for a couple months. Quite a thrilling kind of disturbing yet funny in some parts especially when Skeet and Cuba are together. Love the line "I am destroyer of worlds"! Odd the few times I watched this I barely got sleep one of those easy to chill in bed types pun intended; great how well written it is. Peter Firth is one of the best villain actors in my opinion!

source: Chill Factor

Kevin Thomas from the LA Times promises me on the back "A Roller Coaster Loaded with Thrills and Spills". Kevin Thomas is an awful liar, lemme tell you. A dreadful action-adventure turkey, this starts out squarely on the wrong foot: on some deserted island somewhere mad scientist David Paymer is experimenting with some kind of superweapon he calls "Elvis". (This joke will subsequently be rammed into the ground, covered up with dirt, then dug up and rammed into the ground again as the movie progresses.) Peter Firth is the good-guy American soldier who thinks Paymer's out of control, Paymer pulls rank, does the test, of course something goes wrong, most everybody dies and Firth gets shafted, sent for ten years hard time in Leavenworth. Got that? We cut to the present, Firth gets out and he's the bad guy? (????) And Paymer's some kind of sympathetic hero? (??????) Huh? (I'm gonna use up my ratio of question marks, you get the idea.) Anyway, Firth, who now has a Hollywood-approved multi-cultural, fully integrated team of bad guys, shoots Paymer while looking for "Elvis", who he's gonna sell to the highest bidder. Paymer, bleeding to death, improbably summons up enough strength to give it to Skeet Ulrich, who's "the only guy he can trust". Ulrich (gamely trying for The Hero With A Troubled Past, but really just reminding me of various convenience store clerks I know) shanghais Cuba Gooding Jr.'s ice cream truck, which conveniently happens to be parked outside (Gooding is doing The Hip Urban Guy Whose Wisecracks Are The Comic Relief; it's an embarrassing role for any actor, and Gooding does not enoble himself here.) I personally was rooting for the bad guys throughout, which is kind of a problem in these sort of movies. But anything to shut Cuba Gooding up. Apparently they blew their budget on a few effect shots -- the schtik of the movie is that the bomb has to remain cold or it'll go off, and you'd think there'd be a lot of sequences playing around with that, but not really, and whenever it looks edgy there's always a cold mountain stream or a handy fat guy with a case of beer in a cooler to save the day. Most of it is a dull car chase around what looks like a resort town in Montana. My guess is that early versions of the script were much more of a straight up black comedy, with two lunkheads saving the day for the wrong people. "Bill and Ted meet SPEED". Something like that. But maybe that's just my imagination: that'd make a good movie, though, huh?

I can't believe all the negative comments for this movie. It is about two guys trying to keep the bad guys from scorching about a five-square-mile patch of the US and all the citizens therein. If you went to this movie after watching the trailer and didn't expect it to be a great diversion rather than a serious action-thriller, you weren't paying very close attention when Skeet Ulrich's character brandishes a gun and for the second time says "I need your truck," and Cuba Gooding, Jr., responds, "How far you got to go?" From that point on in the trailer, you SHOULD be clued in. Once the ice cream truck shows up at the diner, it is non-stop action, and it's FUNNY. Everyone needs to lighten up. This is a comedy, and it is a good one. Relax and stop taking yourselves so seriously.

Every once in a while, there is a film that comes along and grabs you unexpectedly, without notice or warning. I must say that "Chill Factor" is one of those such films. At the time of it's release, I had no thought or opinion whatsoever about this film. I didn't even really pay attention to the commercials. A year and a half pass and what do you know, this same movie comes on Cinemax, ironically on my birthday. So I decided to check it out and man I was pleased with what I saw. Maybe this film might not have the greatest plot I know, but it sure as heck keeps you entertained throughout the whole movie. Not many action movies can keep you entertained for the entire duration of the movie but this film succeeds in keeping you engaged the entire time. The chemistry between Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Skeet Ulrich can be ultimately seen in every scene. This film had solid action and the characters are a little hokey, but who cares. Anyway if you're looking for a fun and exciting film, "Chill Factor" is sure to keep you entertained from start 'til finish.

Cuba Goodings made it obvious the movie is offered as fun. Husdon Leick was great as the only woman in the movie. The part was the strong silent type male stereotype given to a woman who portrayed it exactly right. The movie was enjoyable.

Stupid buddy movie about a nuclear bomb being transported through a desert. Enter Cuba Gooding Jr. and Skeet Ulrich ("Scream") as the mismatched guys who have to save the day. I saw it for free on television and even then I was disappointed. 2/5 stars. John Ulmer

Chill Factor (1999): Dir: Hugh Johnson / Cast: Skeet Ulrich, Cuba Gooding Jr., David Paymer, Peter Firth, Kevin J. O'Connor: Stupid action premise that winds down to clichés, stereotypes and total idiocy. Title represents a device that needs to be kept cold but it can also refer to the situation itself. An experiment goes wrong (much like the film) that costs the lives of soldiers. David Paymer plays the doctor in charge who regrets it. Peter Firth plays the commander who took the fall and plots revenge. The rest is a dumb road trip with Skeet Ulrich and ice cream truck driver Cuba Gooding Jr. Hugh Johnson directs as if this is a Looney Tunes cartoon. Ulrich plays a deli worker whom is the only one Paymer can trust on the verge of death, but the role has him either fleeing by vehicle or on foot. Gooding Jr. brings comic relief but the role is total cardboard. Paymer does well but his role requires him to regret, guilt and then die within fifteen minutes, which renders the role a prop. Firth cannot raise the commander above embarrassment. He murders the Paymer character then spends the remainder of the film trying to do the same to Ulrich and Gooding Jr. He also yells threats a lot but that may be the attitude coming from working on this film. Kevin J. O'Connor also makes an appearance in what will become standard for him and action films. Mindless action junk that should be buried in the Arctic. Score: 1 / 10

Sure, this is supposed to be an action-packed buddy flick with nifty stunts and jaunty banter. Uh-uh. This movie is soooo bad it's not even fun to watch. The plot is wretchedly implausible and the action scenes are just dopey. If the dialogue were a little better, we could call it trite. One wonders if the original script was substantially better than the finished product. What else could have lured respected actors like David Paymer and Cuba Gooding Jr. to this project? The mind boggles. All this being said, this flick will always hold a special place in my heart. I saw it on a first date and he and I were united in our mutual disregard for this clunker. Reader, I married him.

This film is, I believe, a bit underrated. Cuba Gooding stars in this action drama about a terrorist and a really nasty chemical weapon. In my opinion, it deserves a bit more than the 4.8 rating that it has accumulated. I gave it a 6. I found the interaction between the two heroes, portrayed by Gooding and Skeet Ulrich, to be quite what I'd expect from people under similar circumstances. There is intrigue and lots of action, enough to satisfy any action film freak. The story is decent and the screenplay is well-written. I thought the execution was OK but nothing to write home about. All in all, a "Not Bad" action flick that shouldn't disappoint.