Be Cool (2005)
The Cast
John Travolta .... Chili Palmer
Uma Thurman .... Edie Athens
Vince Vaughn .... Raji
Cedric the Entertainer .... Sin LaSalle
André 3000 .... Dabu
Steven Tyler .... Himself
Robert Pastorelli .... Joe Loop
Christina Milian .... Linda Moon
Harvey Keitel .... Nick Carr
The Rock .... Elliot Wilhelm
Danny DeVito .... Martin Weir
James Woods .... Tommy Athens
Directed by F. Gary Gray (whose best work in my humble opinion was the highly entertaining The Negotiator), & based on the Elmore Leonard novel that was a sequel to the fantastic Get Shorty, Be Cool finds Chili Palmer (Travolta) tired of the movie business after many years of successes. When his friend Tommy Athens (Woods) is incompetently shot to death in front of him, Chili finds himself getting involved in the music industry.
Featuring a star-studded ensemble cast of scenery chewing actors, this movie attempts to do to the music business what Get Shorty did to the movie industry. In essence, show how dirty & crooked it can be. That attempt probably would've been successful if the cast didn't revert to stereotypical racial prejudices (Vaughn's wigger Raji, Cedric's smart black man, Pastorelli's filthy Italian, etc.), though most of the characterizations do come across as humourous. For a bit, at least.
Hands down, the biggest scene-stealer of them all is The Rock, as a gay Samoan bodyguard that wants to be an actor. The Rock walks a fine line between a cliched fag & a regular gay dude, but easily has the scene of the movie with his audition for Chili. If you haven't seen Bring It On before you sit down to watch Be Cool, you might not entirely get the awesomeness that is The Rock's audition.
Unfortunately, since Be Cool is about Chili Palmer's introduction to the music industry, it's chock full of musical numbers & dance bits & generally unneccessary celebrity cameos. I love the Black Eyed Peas & all, but it wasn't really important for them to perform an entire song in the movie. The same can be said for the Aerosmith concert that features Linda Moon (Milian) in a duet with Steven Tyler. Having that many musical numbers in a movie that isn't a musical will definitely raise up the fidgety factor. Not to mention having to sit through sandpaper-faced Steven Tyler's sleepy performance as himself.
Well, if you eliminated a bit of the musical numbers, this movie could potentially have a better flow to it, in theory. With how big the cast of characters is, not everyone gets equal opportunity to shine, though Andre 3000 & The Rock come across golden in this one. Be Cool tends to drag at points & seems to meander it's way to the final resolution of all the plotlines, but for the most part it's an enjoyable ride. It's no Get Shorty though. 3 outta 5.
Brodie 808's review
Mighty God King's review
Roger Ebert's review