- 1991movierewind
Episode #45: Cool as Ice
Listen to Episode 45 of the Podcast here while you enjoy the show notes.
SUMMARY - In Cool as Ice, Vanilla Ice plays a rapper named Johnny that bounces from show to show and from girl to girl. On their way to the next town, he and his crew get stuck in a small town when one of their motorcycles breaks down. While they wait for it to be fixed, Johnny finds himself mixed in with a local girl whose family might be in danger.
Screenplay by David Stenn; Directed by David Kellogg, and released on October 18, 1991.
FILM DISCUSSION
What better way to start off a movie starring a musician than with a music video? This is a relatively standard warehouse setting with tons of backlight.
The song actually may be better than "Ice, Ice Baby."
Plot wise the movie makes very little sense. A motorcycle breaks down so they go to this "farm" that supposedly knows how to fix it.
There's also a couple of thugs who are after the father of Johnny's (Ice) love interest.
We think they were going for a "Purple Rain" type of movie, but there really isn't much Vanilla Ice music in this to be a quasi-concert film.
The love story honestly makes very little sense as well, but that's okay because neither does the deep dialogue. Yep, yep.
We also compare this to "Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever" as it seems to emphasize the goofy and wacky 90s kids vibe rather than focus on anything substantial.
That makes us question who this movie is really for and we think it's for the little brother types, even though very few of them would actually want to see it.
Randomly, the movie will break out into mini music videos where the style and tone is completely different and disjointed from the whole. This sort of make sense considering the director is most known for commercials and music videos.
Many of the characters make many bad decisions and the movie rarely attempts to explain things properly.
Johnny's crew is also left on the sidelines, which seems like missed opportunities.
Oh well, everything works out in the end.
We also discussed how this was shot by Oscar winner Janusz Kaminski, longtime Steven Spielberg collaborator. We saw his work on The Terror Within II already and this is movie's cinematography is decidedly better.
Awards Talk: This earned a nomination for Worst Picture from the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. At the Razzies, it was nominated for several: Worst Picture, Actor, Director, Screenplay, New Star for Kristin Minter (not deserved in our eyes), Worst Original Song for Cool as Ice (also probably not). The only Razzie win was for Worst New Star Vanilla Ice as he beat out his co-star.
At the MTV Movie Awards - a clip was shown in 'Best inanimate objects' fake nominees category. If you have any more information or a copy of the show, please let us know.
TRUE CRIME & POP CULTURE
This week in true crime, we talk about the life of Vanilla Ice (Rob Van Winkle). If you want to read more, here's an article on The Rise and Fall of Vanilla Ice
If you were watching TV, here's what you may have been watching:
Here are your Billboard Top 5 Songs for the week of October 19, 1991
Mariah Carey - Emotions
Natural Selection - Do Anything
Karyn White - Romantic
Extreme - Hole Hearted
Bonnie Raitt - Something to Talk About
But we're not done yet. We also talk about a couple of Vanilla Ice related products
Jon talked about the finished, but unreleased, Game Boy game that was discovered in late 2018 and originally planned to star Vanilla Ice. They changed the character and game slightly when the licensing plans changed.
Vanilla Ice also had a board game. Below are a couple of links showing its Board Game Geek rating as well as a video from The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon where he shows it in action.
RANKINGS & RATINGS
Nikki 1-5 star scale - 2 out of 5
Jon 0-4 star scale - 1 out of 4
Would you watch it again? - This is one of those movies that may not actually be "good" but it is fun and also perfect for a group setting where people can riff on it. We'd happily go to a midnight movie showing of this.
If you want to watch Cool as Ice, as of this recording in December 2021, it’s available on Tubi, IMDB TV, ConTV, Digital Rental, VHS, DVD. Check your local listings.
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