“Cold Storage” is a Little Drafty, but Still Warm
You may not have realized it, but screenwriter David Koepp has probably written one of your favorite movies of the last forty years. From Death Becomes Her to Jurassic Park to Panic Room, Black Bag, and Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Disclosure Day, Koepp certainly knows his way around a screenplay. The upcoming Cold Storage is the first time that he’s adapting a work of his own for the big screen. In 2019, Koepp released his debut novel, Cold Storage, and now the book has made its way to the big screen. Directed by Jonny Campbell, Cold Storage is a sci-fi thriller about a virus that cannot be contained and a (mostly) laissez-faire reaction from the American government. Sound familiar?
Eighteen years before the main events of the film, a frantic phone call to the U.S. government comes from middle-of-nowhere Australia. The man on the line says that some sort of alien virus has ravaged his small town and he’s the last one left. A team of scientists from the Army is flown in immediately, but the mysterious virus has decimated everything. They find a small sample and vow to keep it under the utmost protection to prevent something like this from happening again. “That utmost protection” is a base in Kentucky that, in eighteen years, went from a high-tech Army location to a generic cold storage facility. When the virus’ containment begins to fail, storage employees Travis (Joe Keery) and Naomi (Georgina Campbell) find themselves in an overnight shift from hell.
STUDIOCANAL
The film’s opening sequence in Australia introduces us to scientists who have a firsthand understanding of the virus’ capabilities. Two of those scientists are played by Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville, both clearly enjoying the chance to act as grizzled, annoyed scientists who are forced to, once again, save humanity from extinction. Vanessa Redgrave is another heavy hitter who makes an appearance as a customer of the storage facility. She plays a small, yet mightily comedic role as the virus begins to wreak havoc. Campbell and Keery, too, are a fun duo. Two underpaid customer service employees who get way over their heads, but also find themselves drawn to one another. The entire cast of Cold Storage makes for a charming group of characters to hang out with for an hour and a half.
STUDIOCANAL
The less charming aspect of the film, unfortunately, comes from Koepp’s script. This is the first time he’s adapted his own work, and many novelists struggle when turning their book into a screenplay. It’s often easier to pare down something you didn’t initially write, and Cold Storage has so many fun components. Redgrave’s mourning widow with a gun, Keery’s aw-shucks vibe, Campbell’s bravery, Neeson and Manville begrudgingly saving the day. Even the soundtrack has a sense of whimsy as the opening credits showing the virus spreading are set to “I Get Around” by The Beach Boys. Even though Cold Storage has a fairly slim runtime, the lighthearted aspects of the film are too few and far between for it to feel as breezy as it should.
While Cold Storage is not Koepp’s best comedy in recent years (that remains Black Bag), there’s still some fun to be had with this group of reluctant heroes. With Stranger Things finally ending, Keery will have more free time for projects like this, and Campbell is an underutilized actor, so it’s delightful to see her after her breakout in Barbarian. Cold Storage may leave the viewer a little cold, but there are some embers here that may catch fire.
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