Film reviews

Be Cool, Dir; F. Gary Gray, Cert; 12A

My words of advice to anyone seeing this film are these: Ignore the fact that it is a sequel to “Get Shorty”.

The reason I say this is because many people seem to regard the latter as a “minor classic” of recent years. Heaven knows why, as I thought it was distinctly average, but that would appear to be the general consensus, and a lot of those folk who complain about this film were those very people. Now, I admit, “Be Cool” is ten times sillier than its predecessor, but this is juxtaposed with the fact that it is also filled with clever twists towards the end of the movie.

Basically, the plot is simple: Chilli Palmer, once again played by the inimitable John Travolta, is growing increasingly bored with the film industry and is turning his attentions to the music business. Linda Moon (Christina Milian) is the budding singer/songwriter that Palmer chooses to promote, and he enlists the help of the widow of one of his music producer friends, Edie (Uma Thurman, re-united with Travolta for the first time in nearly a decade) to do this.

Moon has already has two “managers” in the shape of Harvey Keitel (another “Pulp Fiction” reunion) and Vincent Vaughn. The latter actor steals the show throughout the film, playing, if you’ll forgive the expression, a complete and utter twat. He’s a feebly ineffectual man who’s all mouth and no trousers, and he provides the opposition to Travolta’s laid back Palmer – perhaps TOO laid back, to be fair. I mean, I found it quite difficult to believe that ANYONE would just stand and talk calmly whilst having a gun pointed directly at them! A real sphincter tightening moment for most of us, but apparently not Travolta…

My only two criticisms of the film are that we are subjected to the now all too familiar scenario of “inept street gang member who talks like a sulky teenager for comedy effect” way too many times for my liking; the other one being that the dance between Travolta and Thurman was (presumably deliberately) so similar to the one in the previously mentioned Tarantino classic that it really was quite embarrassing.

On the plus side though, The Rock was surprisingly amusing as Vaughn’s camp and lightweight bodyguard and the soundtrack was quite...er…”cool” at times. I never noticed what a nice arse Christina Milian had before I saw this film either…but then again I guess that one only works if you’re a bloke…

Not too shabby anyway, despite what you may have heard. 7/10

Tone E

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