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BE COOL
Directed by F Gary Gray
Certificate 12A
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Uma Thurman and John Travolta in Be Cool
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It’s been ten years since John Travolta – then one
of the coolest actors on the planet, following his Tarantino reinvention
in Pulp Fiction – strode across the screen as Florida loan
shark Chili Palmer in Barry Sonnenfeld’s adaptation of Elmore
Leonard’s cool novel Get Shorty.
In the interim years, Travolta has got paunchy and lazy on screen
(see Ladder 49, The Punisher and Basic), and Sonnenfeld has been
busy making Men In Black movies, leaving the director’s chair
for this sequel to be filled by F Gary Gray, best known for 2003’s
dumb remake of The Italian Job.
Unfortunately, it’s not just Travolta who has been snoozing
on the job of late – the main problem with this sequel is
the script, based on Leonard’s weak follow up novel. As with
Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, it doesn’t matter how
many of the original cast return or how many references to the
first movie there are – if the source novel is weak, the
director and cast can only do so much to make the movie better,
and Leonard has set Gray and co a difficult task.
As fans will remember, Get Shorty was a fun, brief comedy about
a criminal using his skills to conquer the egotistical maze that
is Hollywood movie making, while being tracked by some of the
dumbest bad guys you’re ever likely to meet.
There’s more of the same here, except Chili is now bored
of the film industry and has set his sights on the music biz,
with the intention of turning young singer Linda Moon (popster
Christina Milian) into a star.
After a sharp first scene in which Chili and a pal (James Woods)
discuss the failings of sequels, it’s downhill from there
as our hero romances a music industry widow (Uma Thurman), incurs
the wrath of a rival record label and comes under the watchful
eye of the Russian mafia. Unfortunately, none of these turns of
events are remotely funny, and Gray – perhaps realising how
well the starry casting of Gene Hackman, Danny De Vito and Dennis
Farina worked in the first film – packs his movie with star
turns, adding so many that by the half-way point you start to
notice that the real star of the movie, Travolta, doesn’t
seem to be in the film much at all.
As well as Thurman – looking sultry and clearly cast so she
and Travolta can recreate their Pulp Fiction dancing chemistry
during one scene (which needed Tarantino to direct it, as it’s
about as sexy as watching paint dry), the cast is a who’s
who of people who should know better. Vince Vaughn, so great in
Swingers and comedies like Dodgeball, here delivers a bizarre
Ali G impersonation as a rap band manager, while Cedric The Entertainer,
Harvey Keitel and pals pop up and then disappear just as fast.
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