Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Cool as Ice Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 20, 2021

David Kellogg's "Cool as Ice" (1991) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include new audio commentary by critics Josh Nelson and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas as well as vintage trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

No, you go first.

Cool as Ice is loaded up with so much ‘80s ridiculousness that it does not need to tell a good story to be entertaining. If this very, very obvious point remains elusive to you, well, this film isn’t for you. It is that simple. (It is irrelevant that it was completed in 1991, it is a genuine ‘80s project).

Vanilla Ice is Johnny, a popular rap star in the city, a complete nobody outside of it. After a flashy gig in a posh night club, Johnny and his pals jump on their fancy bikes and head toward the countryside. By the early morning hours, they reach a sleepy town where one of Johnny’s pals asks an aging amateur mechanic and his bubbly wife to fix his bike. They easily disassemble it, but putting it back together proves to be a much more complicated job.

Meanwhile, Johnny accidentally bumps into Kathy (Kristin Minter), who immediately realizes that he is way too exotic to ignore. He flirts with her, she flirts back, and her jealous boyfriend ends up asking a couple of his buddies to help him teach the visitor a painful lesson. But having grown up in a rough part of the city Johnny quickly figures out a way to handle the unfriendly crew, and shortly after goes out on a date with Kathy. He shows her some of his best moves and how to ride his bike, she kisses him and melts his heart. Then at home, Kathy’s very concerned parents promptly declare that Johnny can never ever be the right guy for her.

But when a couple of shady characters kidnap Kathy’s little brother, Johnny gets a chance to prove her parents wrong.

David Kellogg directed an impressive number of erotic and music videos before he was contracted to do Cool as Ice, which is the main reason why this film looks so busy, colorful, groovy, and choppy. Indeed, it is one giant collection of promo videos for Vanilla Ice that occasionally connect well but most of the time don’t. This happens to be the exact reason why all the negative criticism that its ‘story’ is way too ridiculous is completely irrelevant as well -- there isn’t a conventional story, only some random and completely unbelievable events that allow Vanilla Ice to do his thing before the camera.

And he does it really, really well. He looks funny, he looks cool, and yes, he can definitely sing and dance. The film could have been a total bomb if Vanilla Ice was trying hard to be an actor, but he isn’t. The guy that picks up the small-town girl is him, the same guy from the music videos that became an international sensation. The only difference here is that he gets a few opportunities to slow down and utter a few lines. If you don’t like what he does, then it is practically guaranteed that you never liked what he did in his music videos either.

Folks that pay attention to details won’t have any trouble recognizing the brilliant work of Janusz Kaminski as well. There is so much style in some of the segments that temporarily evolve into music videos that you won’t have to be a bold conspiracy theorist to begin speculating whether this film might have given Steven Spielberg the confidence to book Kaminski to work with him on Schindler's List. (Kaminski lensed the multiple Oscar-winner less than two years later). The highlight of the film, at least as far as this writer is concerned, is the segment that features “Never Wanna Be Without You”. The two leads have a perfect chemistry together, and the beautiful colors and terrific music create a tremendous atmosphere. Kaminski’s camera captures it all and then makes the entire segment look even more impressive than it should.

In addition to the various Vanilla Ice tracks, the original soundtrack features popular tracks by the likes of Lonnie Gordon (“Gonna Catch You”), Rozalla (“Faith”), Daisy Dee (“Crazy”), Derek B (“You’ve Got to Look Up”), and D’New/Temple (“Forever”).

Cool as Ice Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Cool as Ice arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an older master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. Unsurprisingly, overall the film does look dated, but there portions of it that look rather decent as well. The most problematic areas are the ones that feature plenty of natural lighting, which quickly exposes the weaknesses of the master. Some of these weaknesses are loose grain with shaky overall exposure; obvious clipped highlights; halo-like effects popping up around edges (but not conventional harsh edge-enhancement); light contrast boosting; and problematic shadow definition. However, darker areas tend to hide these limitations quite nicely, so while it is still quite obvious to tell that improvements can be made, they hold up pretty well. Fluidity isn't optimal, so if you have a larger screen, you will see that the proper tightness that we often see on new 4K masters isn't there. The color balance is very good, but the primaries and the supporting nuances can and should be healthier. There are no distracting age-related imperfections. So, darker areas can fall in the 3.25/3.50 area, but the daylight footage is in the 3.00 and below area. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Cool as Ice Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio is clear, sharp, and clean. In many areas, dynamic intensity is also very nice. However, there is so much great music throughout the film plus some quite nice action footage that I feel like a modern mix could deliver plenty of decent improvements. (This film would be a treat to see restored in 4K and with a nice new Dolby Atmos mix). The dialog is stable, clear, nicely balance, and easy to follow.

Cool as Ice Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - vintage trailer for Cool as Ice. In English, not subtitled. (2 min, 480/60i).

• Commentary - exclusive new audio commentary by critics Josh Nelson and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas.

• Additional Trailers - additional trailers for the following Kino Lorber releases:
  
  1. CB4: The Movie
  2. The Allnighter
  3. Hard to Hold

Cool as Ice Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cool as Ice offers supersized old-fashioned MTV-esque fun of the kind that we will likely never see in mainstream cinema again. Oh yes, there is a ton of awesome music in it as well. As you can probably recall the film received some really, really bad reviews when it came out, and much later on as well, but I think that Vanilla Ice, David Kellogg, and Janusz Kaminski did some absolutely incredible work in it, like that brilliant segment for "Never Wanna Be Without You". It is too bad that it was not restored in 4K before it transitioned to Blu-ray because it would have been a feast for the eyes. But even in its current form, looking quite dated, it is still an awesome piece of vintage escapist entertainment. RECOMMENDED.