_Chill_Factor_ (R) ** (out of ****)
Note to struggling actors everywhere: if you think winning an Academy Award will make your career spring to life, look at the career of Cuba Gooding Jr. While he has appeared in small roles in two decent films (_As_Good_As_It_Gets_, _What_Dreams_May_Come_) in the scant two years since he won his Supporting Actor Oscar for _Jerry_Maguire_, the lead roles he has landed have been less than satisfactory: in the overwrought melodrama _Instinct_ and now in the routine buddy actioner _Chill_Factor_.
Even more depressing about Gooding's involvement in _Chill_Factor_ is that he's relegated to token wisecracking African-American sidekick to ever-so-vanilla Skeet Ulrich, who has the true starring role here. Or perhaps that is a good thing since this tepid action comedy is not exactly one would be proud to headline (though Gooding is top billed). Ulrich's Tim Mason is the central character, a young diner worker in a small Montana town who comes into the possession of "Elvis," an explosive chemical substance. As instructed by a scientist friend, Tim must deliver the chemical to a military station in a town 90 miles away before some baddies can use it for their nefarious purposes. The catch? The chemical must remain frozen, for at 50 degrees, it combusts. Enter Arlo (Gooding), ice cream delivery man, who is dragged into the dirty affair when Tim decides to use his refrigerated truck for transport.
Thus begins one long chase, where our mismatched duo bickers and bonds while pursued by evil military types (led by Peter Firth and _Xena_ and former _Melrose_Place_ vixen Hudson Leick) in cars and on motorcycles. It's all fairly routine, but director Hugh Johnson is able to come up with a couple of diverting action sequences, namely one where Arlo and Tim must steer the truck on a narrow, blown-out mountain roadway; and another where the two ride a boat down a steep hill.
What neither Johnson nor Gooding and Ulrich can redeem is the limp banter given them by writers Drew Gitlin and Mike Cheda. Most of the laugh lines are given to Gooding, and, to his credit, he obviously attempts to infuse as much punch into them as is humanly possible. Unfortunately, this results in a way over-the-top performance that can best be described as a feature-length riff on his famously energized Oscar acceptance speech. But at least he displays some signs of life, which cannot be said for Ulrich; as in the awful _Touch_, the last film he was called on to carry, Ulrich makes for a flavorless, uninteresting presence that is much too weak on which to hang an entire picture.
_Chill_Factor_ is a competently made studio assembly-line product, and that ultimately is the problem. Without anything remotely extraordinary to its credit, it is taken in by the eyes with relative ease, but leaves nothing of substance to penetrate any deeper.
Michael Dequina twotrey@juno.com | michael_jordan@geocities.com | jordan_host@sportsmail.com | mrbrown@iname.com Mr. Brown's Movie Site: http://welcome.to/mrbrown CompuServe Hollywood Hotline: http://www.HollywoodHotline.com on ICQ: #25289934 | on AOL Instant Messenger: MrBrown23
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