BE COOL
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2005 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 (out of ****)
It should be stated from the outset that "Be Cool," the sequel to
1995's sublime "Get Shorty," is no "Get Shorty." Sure it's fun in
places and laugh out loud funny in others (it's a comedy after all),
mostly hip and very handsome when it tries to be, but it's in a
different class to Barry Sonnenfeld's original take on the Elmore
Leonard comedic crime novel. B-class, coach class, sub-class.
In the first film, John Travolta played a "shylock," a loan shark
who made a name for himself in the movie business, beset, belittled and
besieged by unappreciative mobsters, hit men, and hanger-onners. This
time around Travolta's Chili Palmer--it's a name not easily forgotten,
like "Blue Velvet"'s Frank Booth or "The Usual Suspects"' Kaiser Soze--
has tired of the movie biz and decides to try his hand in the music
industry after spying an up-and-coming J-Lo-styled performer in a
nightclub (Christina Milian, whose singular claim to fame is that she
wrote the "Kim Possible" theme song!).
For every performer, every character in "Be Cool" that rocks
there's one that doesn't. Travolta is the epitome of cool, of course,
slick and sly, with not one hair on his dashing head askew. The music
biz widow he woos is played by Uma Thurman, largely competent but no
Renee Russo (whose absence is a major drawback). Rival industry exec
Nick Carr is played by Harvey Keitel with his clothes on. He's pretty
bad as is James Woods who, thankfully, buys it in the first reel.
Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler plays himself and not very
impressively at that.
Outstanding, however, are Vince Vaughn, as a white guy who acts
black (sounds clichéd but just watch him go at it) and his gay
bodyguard Elliot Wilhelm, a softy with an afro and dreams of an acting
career, played by The Rock. These are terrific characters, beautifully
realized, and raise the film's comedic bar whenever they're on screen.
Likewise OutKast's André 3000 is fun as a thug with an itchy
trigger finger as is Cedric the Entertainer, another music mogul type.
And the late Robert Pastorelli, Murphy Brown's painter, is
entertainingly disgusting as the incompetent hit man Joe Loop
Finally diminutive Danny DeVito shows up in an all-too brief scene
as mega movie star Martin Weir and probably shouldn't even have been
credited (his Jersey Pictures studio produced, however).
The story, taken from Leonard's follow-up, is more of the same,
and affords Travolta the opportunity to reprise his character's
trademark patter. There are bad Russians with even worse toupees and
awkward musical interludes when Linda Moon (Milian) struts her stuff or
gets all gooey at the piano, and the whole slapstick affair goes on way
too long.
But if you can try and get "'Shorty" out of your head for a couple
of goofy, irreverent hours there's a good chance you'll enjoy "Be Cool"
on its own--if inconsistent--merits.
--
David N. Butterworth
dnb@dca.net
Got beef? Visit "La Movie Boeuf"
online at http://members.dca.net/dnb
========== X-RAMR-ID: 39642 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1375922 X-RT-TitleID: 1142856 X-RT-SourceID: 878 X-RT-AuthorID: 1393 X-RT-RatingText: 2.5/4
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