InsidePulse DVD Review – Be Cool

Archive

Director

F. Gary Gray

Cast:
John Travolta……….Chili Palmer
Uma Thurman……….Edie Athens
Vince Vaughn……….Raji
Cedric the Entertainer……….Sin LaSalle
André 3000……….Dabu (as André Benjamin)
Steven Tyler……….Himself
Christina Milian……….Linda Moon
Harvey Keitel……….Nick Carr
The Rock………. Elliot Wilhelm
Danny DeVito……….Martin Weir
James Woods……….Tommy Athens

The Movie

Poor John Travolta. His career started off promisingly enough, then quickly nose-dived, as everyone is familiar. He then ressurected his career with the help of one Q. Tarantino and a little film called Pulp Fiction, and then did a film called Get Shorty around the same time. The man was on fire, and Shorty is considered a comedic gem, a must-own for many movie lovers. Now, Travolta seemingly finds himself on hard career times yet again, and is repeating work done earlier, perhaps to give his life another kick start. Unfortuntately for him and most involved, Be Cool is a disappointing and lackluster sequel to a fantastic film.

It’s been ten years since Chili Palmer (Travolta) made his way from loan-sharking into a promising movie career, and he’s bored to tears with it. During lunch one afternoon, a friend of his in the recording business is gunned down by the Russian mob, and Chili visits his widow Edy (Uma Thurman). Edy and her husband owned NTL (Nothing to Lose) Records, a small label whose biggest act is the gangsta rap crew Dub MDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction). Their manager/producer is Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer), a man used to living a bit better than the ghetto, and who graduated from business school and lives in the suburbs, oh, and who wants the $300,000 that NTL owes him.

Chili and Edy are in the process of trying to acquire a hot new talent named Linda Moon (Christina Milian), who impresses Chili so much that he tells her on the spot he wants to manage her. Unfortunately, this does not go over well with her current manager Raji (Vince Vaughn), a very, very white man(he was born Roger Lowenthal) who dresses and talks like a wigger, and who is in the business with Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel), an old Mob pal of Chili’s.

Okay, probably enough for a movie right? Really, that right there is a lot to follow. But wait, there’s more! Chili and the cops go back and forth while looking into the Russian mob hit, not to mention the Russians themselves.There is a hitman Raji hires to kill Chili. There is Dabu (André “3000” Benjamin from Outkast), living proof why some people should never be given guns. And there is Elliot Wilhelm (The Rock), the Samoan bodyguard of Raji who is desperate to get into the business as either an actor or country singer. Not to mention he’s gay. And, there are some people missing off this list.

It looks great on paper, and on the one-sheets, but this film is just overstuffed. There’s just too much going on at any given time and not nearly enough time devoted to characterization and development. Linda Moon is the focus of this picture, with everyone fighting over her talents, and the viewer is just bored by this. Perhaps it is a matter of casting, but what is so fantastic about this girl that people are going nuts about? The audience certainly doesn’t see anything stunning coming from her. The pace of the movie, already hurting due to the huge cast, slows down even more whenever she is on screen. It makes sense plotwise, and character-wise for Palmer to chase her, but Milian just doesn’t get it done and it hurts the movie.

Everyone else ranges from good to absolutely fantastic, but no one can really save this flick. Travolta is Chili Palmer, and his portrayal of the character is almost as great as it was ten years ago. This really doesn’t feel like Chili Palmer’s movie though, like Get Shorty did, and Travolta gets very little time to shine. Some scenes are funny and such, but with so many other characters, the focus isn’t there enough for Travolta to make this his own. Same with Uma Thurman. Her chemistry is as great as it’s ever been with Travolta, and she does well with her character, but suffers the same fate as she fights for screen time.

Dub MD’s don’t stand out as much of anything other than the cliched gangsta’s, and that’s a shame due to the wasted oppertunity. Andre 3000 plays his part perfectly and gets a laugh any time he’s on screen. But when a group is shoved down everyone’s throats, and the audience is supposed to believe they’re great, why don’t they preform? Hell, why don’t they do anything besides holding guns and talking ‘ghetto’ like walking stereotypes?

Many complain of the performance of Vince Vaughn and his over-the-top wigger act, but it didn’t feel forced at all. Vaughn looked incredibly comfortable in the role, and really came off as someone the audience can easily hate and be irritated by. But it probably would not have worked nearly as well if he wasn’t sharing the camera with the Rock in most of his scenes. Rocky owns this flick and makes it his own, period. He steals every scene he is in with his gay bodyguard role, and everything about him here is just perfect and hillarious. Many detractors say the Rock has no place in the ‘Wood, but if any role or performance will shut them up, it is this one.

The pacing here is pretty awful too. Like mentioned above, the Moon character just doesn’t get it done, and as soon as you just get inside a character’s head or personality, they’re gone for a while and you meet someone else again. Frankly, this makes the movie somewhat boring. The climax of the film, for example, one would think should end it all. But no, before that scene even ends the viewer is being taken somewhere else and has to sit through more story with different characters, which is a bad thing because the story has been so dull up to that point. With a dream cast, it’s a shame it’s all so wasted and poorly done.

Score: 4/10

The Video

The 2.40:1 anamorphic transfer results in a pretty good looking picture. Areas of color one would imagine presenting a problem don’t, and that comes as a welcome relief. Nothing fuzzy here, thankfully. On the downside, overall brightness is a bit low and the picture gets very dark at times, and that causes in problems in locations like the Clubs, and outfits like the black suits. Floating Danny Zuko head, anyone?

Score: 6/10

The Audio:

Audio comes in English Dolby 5.1 and French 2.0 Surround with subtitles in English, Spanish, French Mandarin and Cantonese. It sounds really soild, and the musical scenes are beautiful. The subwoofer will get a workout here, and that is never a bad thing. Dialogue is clear, though some could be bothered by the overall volume level, as it may be too low for some. Nothing that can’t be changed by, you know, turning it up or anything.

Score: 8/10

The Extras

This is a one disc set with a fairly sub-standard set of extras.

Be Cool…Very Cool: 20 minute long ‘behind the scenes’ look at the film, with the standard cast and director interviews, backrubbing, props giving, etc. Nothing special.

Deleted Scenes: Fourteen deleted scenes, most of which deserved to be cut, except for maybe a running gag that repeatedly appears in many of them, involving a character totally-cut from the film trying to come up with a witty comeback to Chili. There’s also an alternate version of Seth Green’s uncredited cameo.

The Gag Reel: Seven minutes of the cast goofing around and screwing up lines, some of which is actually pretty funny. Nothing you’d watch repeatedly, though.

The Music Video: The Rock as Elliot Wilhelm, “You Ain’t Woman to Take My Man” is the full music video that the Rock mentions during the film. This comes with an introduction by director F. Gary Gray acknowledging that it’s meant to be out there and silly. It is hillarious and shows The Rock’s talent again. Fantastic.

Close-Up Featurette: John and Uma’s Dance Sequence: Basic material discussing the attempt to borrow some nostalgia from Pulp Fiction. The scene works, but this is kind of boring.

Close-Up Featurettes: There are four of these, one for The Rock, Andre 3000, Cedric the Entertainer and Christina Milian. They go about five minutes each and are nothing special, as the actors discuss their characters and one gets to see them shooting a specific scene.

No commentary track, which is laughable these days, and the extras total about an hour or so. Lame and disappointing, kind of like the flick.

Score: 3/10