2 out of 10
 

"Chill Factor" was clearly a low budget TV movie that was hijacked by a gang of cultural terrorists to be hurled callously onto an unsuspecting, innocent civilians. Backed by all the budget for 20 Marlbro, the script, written on the back of the empty cardboard packet, has a couple of overacting clowns (Cuba Gooding, Jr and Skeet Ulrich) wander around the back roads of Orange County, California for 102 minutes, doing stunts that wouldn't be a challenge to a Beverley Hills playgroup. And why? They are being chased by some gunrunning terrorists who want the top secret Kool Aid crystals that have fallen accidentally into their hands and explode if not kept cool, almost as violently as anyone back in the Video store the morning after paying to see this junk.

One wonders if their Kool Aid is supposed to bend time relativistically as well, for the entire flick is beyond predictable withl the lame action, mainly centred on the poor mechanical state of the ice cream van that keeps breaking down at ALL the obviously most inopportune moments and occasional revolting gore. Amongst all this, the flick's single stale joke of "Elvis has left the building" is recited endlessly like a mindless mantra, just in case any of the audience are actually woken from their slumber...then again, with a film that stinks this badly, smelling salts are clearly unnecessary here.

Above all, good is pretty and bad is ugly here, with the terrorists, for instance, led by a hideous and arrogant renegade US Army Officer, played by the typecast, Peter Frith. Ironically, the film's detailing of his wrongful jailing for a couple of decades for a mistake that was not his is the only part that packed any punch and actually almost has the audience cheering him on for the rest of the flick. Indeed, if this is the sort of quality we can expect in future, a few nasty chemical warfare outrages in downtown LA, might almost serve as a blessing in disguise.