Chill Factor

It was filmed 20 miles from my old house, so, to prevent bias, you tell me how sucky “Chill Factor” (1999) is: An army colonel named Brynner spends 10 years in Leavenworth and comes out with Yul Brynner’s accent. Glass vials full of a chemical weapons agent get dropped on highway asphalt and don’t break. Said chemical agents cannot get warmer than 50 degrees or they will detonate, but the movie’s heroes decide to leave a diner – which has a walk-in freezer – and instead drive all over Montana with them. Plus, you have the dude from “Hardcastle and McCormick.” Well?

 

As Good as It Gets

“As Good as It Gets” is not. This strange 1997 romantic comedy is very 1990s (code for excruciatingly chatty and somewhat depressing) and therefore doesn’t stand the test of time very well, despite Oscar-winning performances by Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt. Groans outweigh laughs. The theme: It’s not easy being someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder; it’s even harder when you are a total a-hole; that being said, if even obsessive-compulsive a-holes can be redeemed, then there is hope for all of us. Trivia: Lisa Edelstein and Peter Jacobson from “House” play “woman at table” and “man at table” in one scene.