Be Cool

 

Director:
F. Gary Gray

Cast:

John Travolta: Chili Palmer
Uma Thurman: Edie Athens
Vince Vaughn: Raji
Cedric the Entertainer: Sin LaSalle
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson: Elliot Wilhelm
Christina Milian: Linda Moon

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Summary:
Chili Palmer is back (with a horrible reddish bad sunburned skin tone), and after a successful producing career in Hollywood, he turns his eye towards the music business.
Russians, evil record producers and gay bodyguards try to keep Chili from accomplishing his efforts.

Review:
Don't you hate those sequels that capitalize on what they thought made the original work, and then proceed to repeat these same punchlines - or perhaps unimaginatively turn it a bit on its' head - in hopes that the audience will be too stupid to notice that we're seeing a knock-off of the original? I hate it when they do that, and Be Cool is guilty as charged. I don't want to elaborate too much on what failed with this movie because it would be too long of a list worth reading. Here’s a start:
Incessant name-dropping, unfunny scenarios, racial stereotyping, uninspired double-crosses, overacting and overREacting, laughably bad (not in a good way) dialogue that falls flat, unneeded and absolutely annoying musical interludes that are worthy of the likes of your drunken viewings of Honey, Glitter, or You Got Served and then some - are all in this massive let down.

What’s even worse is that it NEVER ENDS! You think it's all wrapped up, but that’s a lie! There are still 40 more minutes of torture to go through before you can leave your seat! Plus, you have to have a final musical number (or two) of a less-than-stellar song to sit through before the credits roll!
F. Gary Gray is a worthless director who made a worthless Ocean’s 11 rip-off with the Italian Job remake. This time around he once again proves to me that he should not provide any kind of contribution to Hollywood.
At least with The Italian Job, I was kind of able to sit through it. By the time it was over, I felt like I had seen a USA World Premiere TV movie. Not the case with Be Cool. Not worth it.

What was good about it? Steven Tyler wasn’t. Steven Tyler knows what "Sweet Emotion" is about. Thanks to VH1, I even know what it's about. Having such easily accessible knowledge to that song's meaning completely negates a key scene in the movie.
I thought the ‘burning man’ joke was very funny, but alas it was hardly worth the entry fee to view about 30 seconds of hilarity. There are still 113 minutes to sit through.

Vince Vaughn was a much better 'black guy' on one of his SNL skits. The Rock wasn't too bad, but they overplayed his gay bodyguard shtick, and although he provided the most laughs, even his one-note joke got tedious. Uma Thurman is worthless, and the chemistry between her and Travolta is absolute zero. During the dancing wannabe Pulp Fiction re-enactment I fell asleep, and even in my half-dozed state I was amazed at how long the scene lasted. I viewed about 20 seconds of that sad exploitation. Travolta doesn't play it cool here like he did in Get Shorty. The first time around, he was surrounded by quirky characters and silly situations that he handled in unique and clever ways. This time, implausible characters surround a caricature of Get Shorty's Chili Palmer. This isn't the same Chili that we came to love. It's a bad imitation.

This whole movie is a bad imitation. Skip it.


GRADE: D

Trivia:
I read the book. It was alright, but I thought it would have been a better movie than this poo.

Christina Milian needs to call me.

F. Gary Gray needs to stop making movies.


Reviewed: 3/5/05