Be Cool (2005)

Be Cool, starring John Travolta, Uma Thurman, and a bunch of other really great actors (V. Vaughn, Dwayne J., C the E, Harvey K., J. Woods, D. DeVito, D. Mazar, G. A. Williams) plus brilliant musical talent from the industry (C. Milian!, Andre 3000, Steven Tyler) is waaaaaaaaaaaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaay better than Get Shorty it's not even close. Get Shorty is annoying compared to this sequel. I love Get Shorty, starring John Travolta, Rene Russo, Gene Hackman, and a bunch of other really great actors (D. DeVito Farina & Lindo with J. Gandolf/Tony T.!) but it ain't nearly as funny nor neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeearly as SEXY as Be Cool and not nearly as good or sweet. (I ain't looked, but I'm willing to bet plenty of ppl think not, welp, URRRRR WRRRRRROOOOOOONGGGGG!) Christina Milian is so, so hot with a beautiful singing voice and I love her. (dip it low, pick it up slow...) Am I gay, or is Christina Milian the hottest divinely-sculpted physical attractive human female specimen imaginable with her deeply gorgeous and purely sensual and beautiful face and the best eyes, or is Uma? It may be awhile 'til I review Ghosts of Girlfriends Past so let me just say Christina's skin is like sweet caramel milk chocolate and her body is like athletic, and super sweet O M goodness. I love me some Christina Milian her music is awesome. Aerosmith's and OutKast's music ain't bad either. (Crazy!, B.O.B. anybody?) John Travolta's perfect for Chili Palmer, the coolest and best shylock ever!Dear Uma Thurman, your butt is so hot, I love it. I love you, Uma. I really don't care about what's her face.

This is a sequel to Get Shorty. Chili Palmer (John Travolta) is tired of the movie business and wants to get into the music business with a new found talent Linda Moon (Christina Milian).Vince Vaughn plays a foolish exaggerated music producer Raji. Everybody seems to be mugging for the camera. Nobody more than Vince is causing all kinds of distractions. At least Dwayne Johnson is likable as the gay bodyguard wannabe actor. There are just too many characters, and everybody is doing something over the top.Everything is gimmicky. Every character is a douche. Even the dance between John Travolta and Uma Thurman is more gimmick than fun. Oh!!! They're dancing like in Pulp Fiction. OMG! Is that supposed to be interesting? Other than John Travolta's likability as Chili and some fun with The Rock, there isn't much to love about this movie. It's so cool that it's cold.

There are occasions when I like a sequel more than the original. Be Cool is one of these. I liked Get Shorty, but it was a little disturbing with some of the violence. I honestly think that Be Cool is much funnier. One way I know I like a movie is if I am channel surfing and I see a movie I know and I stop to watch it again. Well, I did that with Get Shorty the other night, and I realized I like Be Cool better.I think the main reason is the comic performances by actors like Vince Vaughn, who plays a bumbling, silly gangster wannabe (Raji). He is hung out over the edge of the building and he tries to spell his name and can't do it and that cracked me up. I also like Cedric the Entertainer who plays a movie producer (Sin LaSalle) with hired gangster enforcers that he has to tell to be quiet in his upscale neighborhood because they're playing their SUV stereos too loud.Dwayne Johnson (The Rock from WWE) plays a recording star-wannabe/enforcer for the Vince Vaughan character, and is very funny. Robert Pastorelli gets a fun appearance as a mafia assassin (Joe Loop), and chokes to death eating a ham and coleslaw sandwich as Vince Vaughan tries to intimidate him with a red aluminum baseball bat.So maybe I'm the only person that liked this movie, and the comic memories it has for me. Just to give you an idea of other sequels I like better than the originals there's Die Hard II, and Star Trek II.Add in another good comic performance by Andre' Benjamin (Dabu) and I must say this is a funny, enjoyable movie at least for me. Perhaps people don't like this movie because it seems like John Travolta (Chili Palmer) is pretty much a straight man for Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, and Andre' Benjamin, but hey you don't have good comedy without a good straight man. And here's my spoiler, I liked the ending, and the unique way the credits were rolled.

This movie is a latterday exemplar of the type that gets made because umpteen agents and studio executives have convinced themselves that a starry prior hit can be sequelized into an even starrier, bigger hit--ergo no expense should be spared in terms of production-value excess, name-performer baggage (here extending to the realms of standup comedy, rock, rap and R&B stars), and miscellaneous expensive whatnot.\John Travolta gets to reprise his too-cool-for-school protagonist from "Get Shorty," and nods to "Pulp Fiction" in a dance sequence with reunited female lead Uma Thurman. Those are just a couple of the film's myriad "in-joke" Hollywood or music-industry references, which come off as less clever than simply a smug exercise of A-list privilege. (The only reason this movie includes variably brief appearances by Wyclef Jean, James Woods, Fred Durst, Black-Eyed Peas, Gene Simmons, Aerosmith, RZA, Sergio Mendes, Anna Nicole Smith etc. is simply to flaunt its leading characters'--and makers'--infinite fantasy showbiz connectedness.) The results are overblown and pandering--to an imagined mass audience that might enjoy both Elmore Leonard-derived, very Caucasian arch neo-noir comedy and heavy "white negro" (Norman Mailer's phrase) dives into gangsta hiphopdom. But that high-concept gamble failed, as "Be Cool" was not a box-office success.It's a diverting movie due to so many disparate narrative and casting elements, if nowhere near a good one. The racial and gender stereotyping is sometimes borderline offensive, even if it's all meant in "fun." The Rock has funny moments as a bodyguard/wannabe actor, even if his character's homosexuality is used for some cheap jokes. Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, Danny DeVito and others are funny guys--at least when they've got better material than they do here. "Be Cool" isn't bad. It's the equivalent of fleetingly entertaining but instantly forgettable star vehicles from Hollywood's "Golden Age." Except those at least faked sincerity--this is an entirely cynical enterprise. It's a deliberate, crass cash cow that despite everything failed to give birth to more money.