Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary

Hugh Johnson directs Skeet Ulrich, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Peter Firth in this action buddy movie where two regular guys must keep an ice cream truck full of deadly chemical weapons under 50 degrees and out of the clutches of some nasty mercenaries.

Chill Factor is exactly the type of movie this blog was created for almost 10 years ago. A blockbuster that never was. Made with a team that would never have been assembled any other year. With a high concept that actually is quite intriguing. And should be a cult item but has passed on into obscurity. The only time Chill Factor is ever mentioned is on listicles about studio projects that lost a ton of money. Skeet Ulrich was hot for about two weeks after Scream, Cuba was already pissing away his Academy success after Jerry Maguire. They don’t have much chemistry in this contrived Speed / Broken Arrow rip-off. But the script has the right buddy bickering and reluctant heroics dynamic. Who turned this down first? Denzel and Tom? Arnie and Eddie? Woody and Wesley? It would have made a fine third Woody and Wesley two hander… if the action got going a tad quicker. The first act takes up more than half the movie. The narrative really labours getting all its pieces in play before there are any big moves. So the meat (ice cream truck hurtling through highways and ravines on a sunny day, trying not explode) only lasts about twenty minutes. And with a C-list cast, the daft concept is the only reason you’d buy a ticket. So give us more of that for Skeet’s sake! Chill Factor does scratch a Wednesday night itch. It mildly entertains about as much a 99p 3-day VHS rental should. There is nothing within though that begs a belated rediscovery. Yet far worse flicks made their stupid over inflated budgets back. The flop status is a jot undeserved.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Chain Reaction (1996)

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M. Night Shyamalan directs Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and Robin Wright in this drama where the lone survivor of a train wreck begins to reevaluate himself.

The gold standard Shyamalan. Very slow burn but the character study is richer than the twisty reveal at the end. The family in crisis scenes feel pitch perfect rather than an emotionally exploitative ruse. Surely you know by now it is about superheroes, right? What makes this interrogation of the comic book trope all the more fascinating was it came out just as the Marvel / DC blockbuster was in its infancy. In 2000, Hollywood hadn’t figured the formula out for the adaptations. Yet. This feels like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance of the now prominent genre. Only it arrived at the premature end of the cycle. Willis is excellent, using the same tricks Gilliam forced upon him for 12 Monkeys. Dampen down the charm, ban the smirk, you aren’t the coolest guy in the room. He is pretty spellbinding as the humbled, shambling hulk. But it is Jackson’s film all the way. His Mr Glass is driven, measured and hypnotic. You care about him so much from start to end. The set piece where he seeks the truth by recklessly following a dangerous man down some steep stairs is small but has my heart in my throat every viewing. A movie that rewards patience.

9

Perfect Double Bill: The Village (2004)

Dan Trachtenberg and Joshua Wassung direct Doug Cockle, Rick Gonzalez and Michael Biehn in this animated sci-fi action anthology where warriors from three different eras face down a Predator.

Just very cool. A violence extravaganza that bolsters the lore we love. The samurai segment, The Sword, is probably the strongest. The action flows with a balletic smoothness. The Predtor IP feels in very safe hands with Trachtenberg.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Predators (2010)

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Anand Tucker directs Emily Watson, Rachel Griffiths and David Morrissey in this biography of British classical musician sisters Jacqueline du Pré and Hilary du Pré.

This has a more unusual tale to tell than most awards bait biopics. The sister’s relationship is not a pure rivalry. It is parasitic and scandalous. Which makes the whole thing a fascinating car crash. It does suffer from some cliched direction. There was a distinct visual mode of recreating the fifties and sixties in the cinema of the 90s that became very commonplace. Not sure? Think Heavenly Creatures and you are there. But certainly watchable thanks to the strong leads.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Shine (1996)

Nacho Vigalondo directs Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernández and Bárbara Goenaga in this Spanish sci-fi thriller where a husband finds himself in a deadly time loop.

Decent one watcher. The obtuse morality lets it down. Our protagonist does some pretty repugnant shit to reset his world back. Are we supposed to take away he would do anything for his wife? Or that he has this casual evil in him and just needed a crisis to let it loose?

6

Perfect Double Bill: Triangle (2009)

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Kevin Booth and David Johndrow direct Bill Hicks in this stand-up comedy special where Bill performs a live stand-up show in Austin, Texas.

Whoever decided to overlay grainy black and white footage onto the performance needs to have a word with themselves. It detracts from the comedy and makes Bill seem like he is trapped in a Lynchian hellscape. The lack of slickness is often endearing though; walkouts, distractions, terrible camera angles. It feels like a truer document than what we get today. There are some god level perfect stand-up routines here. Searing, brutal, honest. Others are captured better in Revelations while the George Michael stuff has dated horribly.

8

Perfect Double Bill: American: The Bill Hicks Story (2011)

Simon Wincer directs Jason James Richter, Keiko and Michael Madsen in this kid’s animal movie about a foster kid who befriends a trapped whale at a failing aqua park.

A weird brew of anodyne and tough messaging. I was always going to be too jaded for this. Shares a dubious honour with The Shawshank Redemption and Carrie in that its most famous one-sheet poster was the ending of the movie.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

Ridley Scott directs Michael Douglas, Ken Takakura and Andy Garcia in this fish-out-of-water thriller where two NYC cops transporting a Japanese prisoner back to Osaka lose him at the airport.

Plot wise this is standard product. A less serious tone and it could easily be Beverly Hills Cop Goes Japan. Douglas looks like he will fuck anything that moves (if only he had the time). Ridley clearly loves filming modern Japan. Neon, trucks, motorbikes, clean lines. He has a visual hoot. It is a quite loose, quite basic movie but when it hits a note it hits it with intensity. Some decent mid level action if you aren’t keen on the travelogue and brooding culture clash performances. Put into production when Japan was buying up American corporations and movie studios but it ain’t as xenophobic as you’d fear. Made for Saturday nights in.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Rising Sun (1993)

Parker Finn directs Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt and Lukas Gage in this horror sequel where the smiling curse moves onto a pop star just as she is about to embark on a gruelling comeback tour.

Again, more a chiller than a horror with massive debts to Repulsion and J-Horror. The backstage of a world tour setting adds pageantry and pizazz. Naomi Scott heavy lifts for the bulk of the movie. She convinces as a world famous singing sensation, a mentally fragile diva and a doomed doll in a demon’s psychological toy box. Bloody and grinding in equal measure my only real beef with the ambitious but mainstream Smile movies is they stretch a nippy Twilight Zone hour over twice the runtime. They play like emotional marathons. Intentional maybe, but this is going to restrain me from rewatching regularly.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Malignant (2021)

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Bronwen Hughes directs Sandra Bullock, Ben Affleck and Maura Tierney in this road movie romantic comedy.

Let’s direct an aggressively anti-marriage It Happened One Night in an ugly world that looks like the fake reality from The Matrix? Will it have likeable characters? Will it have a happy ending? Ugh!

3

Perfect Double Bill: Practical Magic (1998)