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Film Review: Be Cool

Tue Mar  1,12:40 PM ET

By Kirk Honeycutt

Reviews -  Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) -  "Be Cool" is a sequel to "Get Shorty," 1995's rich, dark comedic satire of Hollywood and criminals, but perhaps it's best not to dwell too much on that.

For "Be Cool" has a different comic agenda, a different vibe and different rhythms. It's more of a cartoon, divorced from the usual fictional world of Elmore Leonard crime fiction -- more Hollywood than Detroit, you might say, where dark comedy turns gray and characters get exaggerated to the point of caricature. "Be Cool" is not really cool as "Get Shorty" was, but it's entertaining, a frivolous cocktail rather than a vintage wine.

John Travolta returns as Chili Palmer, and Uma Thurman, his "Pulp Fiction" co-star, plays his inamorata, and there's Danny DeVito (news), actor and producer of this film whose company also produced "Get Shorty," and the whole thing becomes one boisterous class reunion. The new film -- with a new writing-directing team in Peter Steinfeld and F. Gary Gray -- might not approach "Get Shorty's" domestic box office haul of $72 million, but the numbers will not be insubstantial. MGM might be moribund, but the grand old studio has a winner in its last few months.

Nearly a decade after Chili discovered his loansharking talents applied to Hollywood dealmaking, "Be Cool" finds him tiring of the film racket and casting envious eyes at the music business. In a slam-bang opening, Chili and music producer Tommy Athens (James Woods) drive along the Sunset Strip as Chili complains about the movie industry. At a sidewalk cafe, Tommy pitches Chili a movie about his life and drops the name of a hot new singer. A decrepit car pulls up, and a Russian Mafia guy in a bad toupee blasts away at Tommy until he is dead -- the guy doesn't shoot too straight, understand. Within hours, Chili hears the new singer, Linda Moon (Christina Milian), steals her away from her managers and sweet-talks Tommy's widow, Edie (Thurman), into teaming up with him to produce Linda's album.

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Soon half the town is arrayed against Chili for poaching this untested talent: There's her former managers, Nick (Harvey Keitel), an acquaintance from Chili's loansharking days; his partner, Raji (Vince Vaughn), a white guy who believes he's black; Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer) -- a parody of a Suge Knight-like gangsta rap label impresario -- who tools around L.A. with a posse that includes trigger-happy bodyguard Dabu (Andre Benjamin); and a motley crew of Russians, who don't seem to know what they want.

The basic premise here is there is no difference between the music and crime businesses. "We're all wiseguys," Nick says. So Raji, pissed off at having his singer stolen from him, doesn't call in a lawyer. He calls in a hit man, Joe Loop (Robert Pastorelli), who has the bad habits of eating with his mouth open and whacking the wrong guy. Raji has poor luck, too, with his gay bodyguard, Elliot (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), who really wants to be an actor and music video performer.

Gray encourages his cast to treat the material as a jumping-off point for major clowning. Top dogs are Vaughn, never better at physical comedy than here, and Benjamin (aka Andre 3000 of the Grammy-winning OutKast), amusing as a dysfunctional gangsta. Travolta, all in black, and Thurman, often all in red, again make a great couple, even getting up for a brief turn on the dance floor though they should have sat the number out.

Cedric the Entertainer is good, but his character is overboard even for this parody. The Rock has a ball spoofing his own image. Milian's talent and beauty radiate throughout the movie, though she is stuck with the only normal character in the movie.

The sequel opens with Travolta's character dissing the whole notion of sequels, and later Aerosmith (news - web sites)'s Steven Tyler turns up to explain why at this stage in his career he doesn't need to turn up in a movie. "Be Cool" has that sense of humor.

The movie cruises all the hot Southland spots, slipping past doormen into the Viper Room, drifting into Staples Center for a Lakers game and relaxing poolside in a Hollywood Hills play pad. Cinematographer Jeffrey L. Kimball lights and shoots the film in the bright colors of a TV talk show, songs are surprisingly -- given the subject matter -- retro, and costumes wonderfully awful. Much effort went into creating the impression of casualness.

Cast: Chili Palmer: John Travolta; Edie Athens: Uma Thurman; Raji: Vince Vaughn; Sinclair "Sin" LaSalle: Cedric the Entertainer; Dabu: Andre Benjamin; Himself: Steven Tyler; Joe Loop: Robert Pastorelli; Linda Moon: Christina Milian; Nicki Carr: Harvey Keitel; Elliot Wilhelm: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

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Director: F. Gary Gray; Screenwriter: Peter Steinfeld; Based on the novel by: Elmore Leonard; Producers: Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, David Nicksay; Executive producers: F. Gary Gray, Elmore Leonard, Michael Siegel; Director of photography: Jeffrey L. Kimball; Production designer: Michael Corenblith; Music: John Powell; Costumes: Mark Bridges; Editor: Sheldon Kahn.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Source: Yahoo! News Thu, Mar 03, 2005

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