Nowadays we know that all kinds of global catastrophes can occur due to lab accidents, so the basic premise behind Chill Factor, 1999 action film directed by Hugh Johnson, looks chillingly more convincing than it was during the film’s premiere. The plot begins in 1987 at a remote Pacific island when team of US government scientists led by Dr. Richard Long (played by David Paymer) is going to test new defoliant agent under codename “Elvis”, despite misgivings of US Army Captain Andrew Brynner (played by Peter Firth). The experiment goes terribly wrong with “Elvis” proving to be more destructive than anyone thought and killing 18 soldiers. Brynner is chosen as scapegoat for the fiasco and sentenced to ten years of military prison. Dr. Long continues his career and runs further experiments with “Elvis” at another lab, this time in Montana, where he spends free time fly fishing and thus befriending Tim Mason (played by Skeet Ulrich), young local cook with a shady past. When Brynner is released from prison, he wants revenge on Dr. Long and government that betrayed him so he gathers elite team of mercenaries and terrorists and raids Montana facility. His aim is to get his hands on “Elvis” and sell it to international market to highest bidder. However, Dr. Long, although mortally wounded in the raid, contacts to Mason, gives him a sample of “Elvis” and explains that it must be kept under certain temperature in order to prevent another, this time even greater, disaster. The only vehicle capable of doing so is an ice cream delivery truck driven by Arlo (played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) who, at first very reluctantly, agrees to bring “Elvis” to the nearest US government facility. But their mission gets complicated when they become targetted by Brynner and his small army.
Chill Factor shows how the line that separates bad films from those so bad to be entertaining is rather thin. It looks like it was originally devised as straight “high concept” action film based on premise that combines Speed with The Rock, but it turned into unintentional parody of those two films because some of the plot elements in those two films are here used in absurdly over-the-top and unconvincing ways. The only humour scriptwriters originally intended was in the “buddy buddy” scenes that pair two protagonists, but despite great effort by Ulrich and hyperactive Gooding, they can’t compensate for the cliches and predictability that plague the rest of the film. One example can be found in protagonists doing all kind of terminally stupid things only to give excuses for spectacular action scenes with plenty of pyrotechnics and special effects. Another example can be found in villains that are all dressed in black, drive black vehicles and have all kinds of sinister-looking high tech gadgets protruding from different body parts. Most conspicuous among them is played by Hudson Leick, best known as Callisto in Xena: The Warrior Princess ; this detail would only show the fans of the series how bad this film when it fails to use her potential for the roles of formidable female villains. The only thing that makes this film watchable is its relatively short running time which prevents audience from being too annoyed with its flaws. However, this wasn’t enough to prevent Chill Factor from turning into major box office flop and being savaged by critics. For Hugh Johnson, Irish cinematographer known for his work for Ridley Scott, this was the only film in his directorial career.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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