Reviewer's Rating 4 out of 5 Ìý User Rating 2 out of 5
Chill Factor (2000)
15

There's nothing quite like well-shot hokum. In other words, once you accept you're watching a live-action cartoon, you further accept that zero credibility (in terms of plot) and thinly-written characters are the order of the day and simply sit back to enjoy the ride.

In "Chill Factor" the ride is an extended chase and springs from a covert scientific - military research operation going horribly wrong when 18 servicemen die; the officer in charge takes the heat, the scientist is imprisoned only by his conscience, and the result is a tale of revenge. Ten years later the scientist is fatally wounded by the officer and he staggers into a diner, where Skeet Ulrich is the night worker and Cuba Gooding Jr is the delivery driver. From now the chase is on. Peter Firth and his bad-boy buddies want a lethal substance called Elvis, which could obliterate a chunk of America and which Cuba, in his ice-cream van, just has to keep frozen.

Rarely since the glory days of Bruce, Sly and Arnie has there been such enjoyable action nonsense. It is clear that Irish director Hugh Johnson has his spirits lifted by action, action, action and he just loves speeding from one set piece to another. As the black vans of the black-attired baddies crash and explode all over the place, as a helicopter swoops and dives, and as our diner and driver chums speed down a mountainside in a boat, you realise that hardly any form of transport has been left out. Tightly-coiled silliness.

End Credits

Director: Hugh Johnson

Stars: Cuba Gooding Jr, Skeet Ulrich, Peter Firth, David Paymer, Hudson Leick, Kevin J O'Connor, Daniel Hugh Kelly

Genre: Action

Length: 101 minutes

Cinema: 23 June 2000

Country: United States

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