Be Cool Review

"Be Cool" reviews

Movie

Be Cool

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-11-07 23:05:35

Rating

2/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

In this follow-up to 1995's Get Shorty, which are both are based on novels by Elmore Leonard, Be Cool tries desperately to be hip, dangerous and funny. Great films make that ambition look easy--this one reminds us of how hard it is to spin all those plates.

Story

Mobster-turned-movie producer Chili Palmer (John Travolta) decides to shift over to yet other creative, albeit dangerous, terrain: The music industry. He's spurred along by the murder of his friend, small-time music maven Tommy (James Woods), who leaves behind a beautiful widow, Edie (Uma Thurman) and a massive debt to a dangerous rap music mogul, Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer). Chili tells Edie about Linda Moon (Christina Milian), a gifted singer he decides to manage after seeing her perform. With her raw talent, Linda has the potential to bail them out. But first they have to get her out of a nasty contract and abusive relationship with her former manager, Nick Carr, (Harvey Keitel), his right-hand man, Raji, (Vince Vaughn), and his right-hand man, a bodyguard with the unfortunate name of Elliot Wilhelm (The Rock). Complicating things are the Russian mob, and a bevy of cops keeping Chili in their crosshairs. This all feels tacked on, as the nameless, accented characters serve the same purpose as robots in a science fiction movie--they can get blown away without sacrificing any stars or feeling any emotion (prioritize those considerations as you wish).

Acting

John Travolta, who has barely aged in the 10 years since the first film, is in top form in Be Cool. He lives up to the title and his character's name. No matter how dire the circumstances, no matter how much he's outnumbered, and no matter how many gleaming, pistols he has aimed at him, he never, ever, loses his even-keeled demeanor. But maybe that's the problem--because if Chili doesn't ever break a sweat, then why should we, the audience? Thurman isn't exactly showing her years either but has little to do as Edie. Vince Vaughn is the best he's ever been--he's amped up, thinks he's black, and sports a high-pitched laugh that is instantly annoying and hysterical. As Raji's gay bodyguard, the Rock has a great time lampooning himself (at least the raised eyebrow bit) and revealing terrific comic timing. Cedric the Entertainer would have been better off as more of a reluctant menace, to play toward his skills instead of against them. Even the young up and comer Milian does a nice job playing the ingénue singer. But have you ever thrown a party and realize that you've actually invited too many of your good friends? And you don't get to spend enough time with any of them? Well, adding the following to the list above is: Andre Benjamin, of the hip hop grou Outkast, plays Dabu--a klutzy, overeager trigger man for Cedric the Entertainer; the late Robert Pastorelli, as a deli-sandwich eating hit man; Danny DeVito, in a cameo reprising his character from the original; and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler playing himself.

Direction

Director F. Gary Gray's understated style and clarity is what made a movie like The Italian Job so entertaining. But with Be Cool that style is mostly absent. There is a flatness to the direction; specifically, there are a lot of close-ups for one-liners and many scenes go on just a few beats too long (one that comes to mind is an otherwise funny scene where The Rock models impossibly gay threads for himself in a mirror). In some cases, jokes are simply repeated, instead of building. Those are heavy sins for a comedy. Plus the kind of breezy cinema that Be Cool, and its predecessor Pulp Fiction have traded on has now become a little worn out. It's just not enough anymore to have a black-clad Travolta confidently stride across a room toward danger, even if he does it better than almost anybody else. Or having charismatic tough guys oozes the cool, all while discussing things like the merits of a Burger King sandwich. What's needed in Be Cool is a slightly fresher perspective. The convoluted plot, with its meaningless table-turning, doesn't help matters. It's a series of entertaining moments rather than a coherent movie.

Bottom Line

It's hard not to love the performers in Be Cool, and you won't find this much talent for the price of one movie ticket, even if they do get in each other's way. But if you're looking for substance as well as style, you'll have to go to the video store and Get Shorty.

Movie

BE COOL

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2005-10-25 21:09:37

Provider

MRIB

Review

The sequel to Get Shorty, Be Cool is so wrong in so many ways it's almost impossible to know where to begin. Co-scripted by Elmore Leonard, from whose novel it's adapted, it features the kind of lines sitcom parents say to their children when they want to demonstrate how hopelessly out of touch they are.

So the Viper Club is still hip, an Aerosmith cameo is a surefire short cut to the top for an aspiring young singer (Christina Milian) and white men who want to be "down" sprinkle terms like "mad respect" around like it's a guaranteed ghetto pass. Leonard has an ear for great dialogue - as anyone who's read his books will know - but here he's transplanting it into a world (Palmer's now trying to break into the music biz) that moves far faster than a movie project.

John Travolta reprises his role as Chili Palmer, the hoodlum-turned entertainment entrepreneur from the '95 original. Back then he was fresh off Pulp Fiction and hot as hell; now he's fresh off Ladder 49 and those wilderness years suddenly make much more sense (the hair transplants a little dodgy too). Worse, the producers have dragooned Uma Thurman into dance with Travolta as if some of Pulp Fiction's fairydust will fall on them as a result.

F Gary Gray made one of the great pop videos in OutKast's Ms Jackson. In Be Cool he casts Andre 3000 as one of the henchmen. With him, the excellent Vince Vaughn, Harvey Keitel, Thurman and Leonard himself all on board, Be Cool has a hell of a lot of talent to waste. And maybe that's the problem - this film allows star talent to sleepwalk through it as if merely turning up was enough to make a movie. Be Cool? Whatever.

Be Cool Review