Chill Factor ** (1999, Cuba Gooding Jnr, Skeet Ulrich) – Classic Movie Review 1485

Director Hugh Johnson’s 1999 release has its moments but it is a sluggish, formulaic, unbelievable Speed-style chase thriller, with engaging performances from the likeable stars giving it a bit of a lift.

Cuba Gooding Jnr stars as truck driver Arlo and Skeet Ulrich joins him as convenience store clerk Tim, who must stop mercenaries trying to steal a devastating chemical weapon. The star duo has to use Arlo’s ice-cream van to get the unstable chemical to an army base, keeping it carefully below 50deg F or it will explode.

With one or two tense scenes and good stunts, it’s just about tolerable. But the plotting and dialogue just aren’t really good enough, giving Cuba and Skeet a lot of headaches, though they still manage to raise some laughs. And Peter Firth is on rather poor form as Colonel Andrew Brynner, the mercenaries’ leader. A surprisingly costly B-movie, with a $70million budget, it took only $11million in the States

The diner scenes were filmed in Liberty, South Carolina. The diner is actually a wood shop and the $15 a night hotel is a coin-operated laundrette.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1485

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/