Chill Factor

Someone must have really shown Jerry Maguire's Cuba Gooding, Jr. the money for him to risk his Oscar cachet on this derivative buddy movie that never quite gets up to Speed, despite its blatant ripoff of that breakneck thriller's gimmick. Instead of a bomb-rigged bus forced to maintain its speed of 50 m.p.h., here we have a chemical weapon--code-named Elvis, leading to the inevitable "Elvis has left the building" and "Elvis is dead" wisecracks--that must be kept cooler than 50 degrees. Standing between us and flesh-melting defoliant devastation are the requisite mismatched antagonists: Mason, a short order cook (Skeet Ulrich), and Arlo, a thief (Gooding, Jr.), who race to transport Elvis to a military base 90 miles away in--get this--Arlo's stolen ice cream truck. They are pursued by the renegade Capt. Andrew Bryner (Peter Firth) and his elite squad of commandos, who, of course, are no match for two schlubs in an ice cream truck. "Your lives will end on this miserable road to nowhere," Bryner warns them. If Gooding, Jr., whose shameless mugging reeks of desperation, isn't careful, so will his career. Not recommended. (K. Lee Benson)