#19: COLD STORAGE

 

STARRING: Georgina Campbell, Joe Keery, Sosie Bacon, Vanessa Redgrave, Lesley Manville and Liam Neeson. Screenplay by David Koepp. Directed by Jonny Campbell. Running time 99 minutes.

Staying just long enough to do its job this was a fun, if uninspiring little sci-fi romp with a game cast, gory effects and a nice chemistry, but sadly missing the oomph factor to make it something really special.

The plot sees a mutated fungus return to Earth on a piece of the old Sky Lab and start killing all it infects. Luckily Neeson and Manville are on hand to contain it and lock it away in military storage facility. However, 18 years later the facility has been sold off and is now a self storage depot and the once hi-tech deep freeze containment facility holding the fungus has started malfunctioning causing storage depot night-watch man, Travis 'Teacake' Meacham (Joe Keery) and new girl, Naomi Williams (Georgina Campbell) to go off and explore the ominous bleeping deep below in sub basement 4. Meanwhile, an old lady, Ma Rooney (Venessa Redgrave) has come to inspect her storage locker. When Travis and Naomi discover that something has breached the containment field they phone the military and both Robert Quinn (Liam Neeson) and Trini Romano (Lesley Manville) are dispatched to contain the breech and kill any infected humans. Added to the mix is Travis and Naomi's boss, Griffen (Gavin Spookes), a Hells Angel biker who brings his gang to transport some stolen TVs out of the storage facility, oh, and Naomi's ex-boyfriend Mike (Aaron Heffernan). And the stage is set for some gory deaths and silliness. 

How wonderful to see so many great British and Irish actors in one film, Neeson, Manville and Vanessa Redgrave, and what a shame they're not given more to do. The film takes its time to get up to speed with a pre-credit sequence showing the capture of the fungus by Neeson and Manville, which is rather reminicent of the vastly superior, but far less funny 1971 film, The Andromeda Strain. The present day cast in the guise of Keery and Campbell have good chemistry and there's a nice edge of humour. And the idea of a military storage facility breaking down was used far more effectively in the superb The Return of the Living Dead.

This isn't a bad film, it was entertaining, funny and gross out gory at times but that's about it, it's a tad too laid back for its own good and lacks a really satisfying big boss battle. That said, at 99 minutes it's brisk and altogether fluffy and not at all terrible.

7/10