Cold Storage opens with an appropriate cold opening that introduces US Government agents Trini (Lesley Manville) and Robert (Liam Neeson) as they investigate orbiting debris that has caused havoc in Australia after crash landing there. It seems a nasty space fungus survived crash landing on a hunk of NASA hardware. After some delightfully gelatinous mayhem, the fecund intruder is captured, flown to the United States, and entombed in a controlled government facility in Missouri. Of course we know from Jurassic Park that “Life finds a way,” and we are in for more extraterrestrial anarchy.
Directed by Jonny Campbell in his feature film debut and written by screenwriter David Koepp, (Jurassic Park, Stir of Echoes) Cold Storage delivers a surprisingly fun, gory, gloopy, ride that asks little from the audience except to hold on tight.
We jump to present day and, in a hilariously cynical development, the once highly classified government storage facility that houses the aforementioned alien fungus, has been redeveloped into a self storage facility. Rolling into work late one stormy night are Travis, aka Teacake (Joe Keery) and Naomi (Georgina Campbell). Reporting to schluby boss Griffin (Gavin Spokes,) Teacake learns that his boss is up to some flat screen TV smuggling. Meanwhile longtime client Ma Rooney (Vanessa Redgrave) stops in to visit her storage unit. That’s when Teacake and Naomi begin to hear an irritating, incessant chirping that sounds like a dead fire alarm.
Tracing the noise the discover a false wall, a 400 ft ladder to a lower level and an outdated climate controlled government storage unit on the verge of compromise. That’s when Neeson’s Robert is called in the middle of the night to once again contain the virulent life form. As Robert makes his way back to the converted storage facility, lowly employees Teacake and Naomi fight off everything from low-profile bikers to enraged wildlife. That’s not to mention Naomi’s ex, Mike (Aaron Heffernan) who rolls in with a dead cat and some margarita mix. The stage is set for a farcical fracas where no one has a clue what’s really happening aside from the heroes and even then it’s suspect.
Screenwriter Koepp knows how to build chaos. He has proven that time and again. What he never seems to get to is a clever subtext. Cold Storage is fun, no doubt, but we aren’t given a deep philosophical foundation from which to lens the mayhem. Does it matter? Not immediately. But Keopps best screenplays are the ones with a deeper message. Here we are just having fun.
Neeson rides high on his newfound knack for comedy as the hilarious straight man. While not as broad as his breakthrough comic role in The Naked Gun, he still shows a feel for timing and wit. Both Keery and Campbell are solid leads that play off of one another well. I also really enjoyed Heffernan‘s Mike who goes from frantic ex with a dead cat to barfing monster in minutes. He’s both hilarious and disgusting.
Overall, praise goes to director Campbell and any that he pulled along into this cosmic comedy. It’s all surface silliness with a hint of cynicism, but everyone hits their mark and the time flies. Just don’t let anyone barf green fungus on you and you should be good.
