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| Directed by Hugh Johnson; Starring Skeet Ulrich, Cuba Gooding Jr., Peter Firth, David Paymer, Hudson Leick, Daniel Hugh-Kelly, and Jordan Mott |
One thing that I have a tendency of doing is complaining about certain actors throughout their careers. Not just modern day actors but also those of the sixties and seventies, my two largest viewing periods. Names like Sophia Loren and Rod Steiger (though I will make a concession with The Pawnbroker) have continually seen their merits dismissed with the stroke of my pen. But those two were part of a minority back then, now nearly half of the working acting stock is rotten. Not just unfunny comedic actors like Chris Farley, David Spade, and Adam Sandler, but also many that try their luck at dramatic and adventure roles (for the sake of my own mental stability, I shall not even get into the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, and Steven Siegal). Well before the release of Chill Factor, I had often named one person as the worst actor of the nineties. In my mind, you cannot get much worse than Skeet Ulrich. Many films have been troubled with his presence, and often he is the sole downfall of a film (I was a big fan of Scream, but my biggest problem and, in my opinion, the main debit of the film was Ulrich’s inclusion in the cast. Skeet Ulrich has never shown any acting prowess and has fallen on his face everytime he has tried (of course the only time Ulrich’s presence in a film was a plus was his picture being a mockery in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut). Whether the film be As Good As It Gets, Touch, or The Newton Boys, he stands as the worst part of the movie (for The Newton Boys, he was one of many bad things about the film, but still the worst). With the release of Chill Factor, Ulrich gets an addition to his shamed filmography.
Chill Factor is another one of those stupid buddy action films with mostly uttered dialogue in between action sequences. If Tango and Cash didn’t teach the studios, one can only hope that this will. A drifter finds himself on a mission to save millions of lives when a scientist friend of his (Paymer) gives him a weapon of mass destruction called Elvis with the instructions to deliver it to a nearby army base. It seems that a rogue former military officer named Brynner (Firth), who went to prison for a mistake the scientist made, is now set to steal the weapon and sell it to the highest bidder. The big problem is that this weapon will more or less blow-up if its temperature rises above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. That means that Ulrich has to find a way to keep the package cold in the trek to the army base. There enters Jerome (Gooding) with his ice cream truck that he has come upon in a moment of anger at its owner. The two try their best to get this package to the base while keeping it cold and trying not to be killed by the officer and the police believing that Ulrich is responsible for the death of Paymer.
The film is an utter disgrace to filmmaking stealing from Speed, Project X, and even Daylight. The film is less than worthwhile to sit through. The only thing that I could think of that was near interesting was that David Paymer, one of my choices for most underrated comedic actors. The film is terribly boring, neither thrilling nor half interesting. The normally strong actor Gooding even falters since he seems to be attempting to be an unfunny form of comic relief. Chill Factor is not the worst action film I’ve seen this year, but it is pretty close.
