Be Cool

 (2005)

Be Cool Blu-ray delivers great video and audio, but overall it's a mediocre Blu-ray release
Disenchanted with the movie industry, Chili Palmer tries the music industry, meeting and romancing a widow of a music exec on the way.

For more about Be Cool and the Be Cool Blu-ray release, see the Be Cool Blu-ray Review published by Casey Broadwater on August 3, 2011 where this Blu-ray release scored 2.5 out of 5.

Starring: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, André Benjamin, Steven Tyler
Director: F. Gary Gray

» See full cast & crew

Be Cool Blu-ray Review

Tragically uncool.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater, August 3, 2011

In 1995's crime-comedy Get Shorty, based on the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name, John Travolta played a Miami shylock who gets involved with some shady Hollywood types and inadvertently walks into a career as a movie producer after crossing the country to collect a gambling debt. It's a sharp film, a self-conscious satire of the seamy, less-publicized underbelly of the movie industry--where having a criminal background might actually be a plus--and it's earned a reputation and following as one of the better studio comedies of the 1990s. There were high expectations, then, for the long-in-the-making sequel, 2005's Be Cool--also adapted from an eponymous Leonard novel--which finds Travolta's "Chili" Palmer character scheming and dreaming again 10 years later, this time trying to break into the music producing business. Unfortunately, Be Cool feels a lot less effortlessly funny than its predecessor, and it seems to try both too hard and not nearly hard enough to spoof L.A.'s behind-the-scenes world of semi-legal record contracts, Russian mobsters, and wannabe pimps. It's a star-studded production, but one in which the stars only occasionally shine.



As a filmmaker, you should know you're tempting fate when you open your movie--a sequel--with a discussion between two characters about how much sequels suck. We get it. You're being self-referential. Clever. But guess which scene critics and disappointed viewers are going to remember when the film is an inevitable let-down, paling in comparison to its beloved predecessor? Yeah. I wonder if this possibility even crossed the minds of screenwriter Peter Steinfeld and director F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job)? If it did, they clearly had the sufficient and ill-advised self-confidence to dismiss it, but this is only the first of Be Cool's bad moves.

The scene is between Chili Palmer (Travolta), now a successful movie producer, and his pal Tommy (James Wood), a record company exec who's trying to pitch him a script idea. While they're lunching outside, a Russian gangster with a floppy toupee gets out of a beat-up Cadillac and shoots Tommy dead. His clip runs out of bullets, however, before he can put one in Chili, the only witness. This sets off a superficially convoluted and not easily followed series of events that seems less like a story and more like an excuse to shoehorn as many A-veering-on-B-list celebs into the film as possible. The biggest casting coup is that Travolta is reunited with his Pulp Fiction co-star, Uma Thurman, who plays Tommy's widowed wife, Edie, a former Aerosmith groupie--actually, she did their laundry on tour--who now runs the label and needs a hit album from a new star to pay off her husband's debts. Chili has just the girl--Linda Moon (Christina Milan), a honey-voiced crooner with big aspirations.

The complication? Linda is locked into a five-year contract with her no-good promoter, Raji (Vince Vaughn), a delusional white dude who dresses like a cliched 1970s pimp, speaks in ebonic malapropisms, and desperately wants to be perceived as black. This is supposed to be hilarious, but it just isn't. At all. I don't necessarily fault Vaughn; with the possible exception of Robert Downey, Jr.--based on his performance in Tropic Thunder--few actors could make this been-done-to-death, white-guy-trying-to-be-black schtick funny. The film's tired, racially-based or otherwise stereotypical stabs at humor don't end there, though. Raji's aspiring-actor bodyguard, Eliot (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), is a Samoan who seems incredibly gay to everyone but himself, and Cedric the Entertainer plays Sin LaSalle, a filthy rich record producer who commands a legion of jersey-wearing gangster rappers who carry glocks and drive around in a cavalcade of tricked-out Hummers. Then, of course, there are the Russians, archetypal baddies who run a pawn shop front and are fond of shouting various unkind epithets.

I get that the film is trying to poke fun at the absurdities of Los Angeles and its insular music biz, but Be Cool's comedy was dated and stale even at the time of its 2005 release. If there is satire here, none of it hits the mark. There are a few meager laughs--like Eliot choosing to recite a scene from Bring It On for a spur-of-the-moment audition with Chili--but most of the script goes for lazy humor that doesn't provoke much of a response. Did I mention that Aerosmith's Steven Tyler shows as himself--baked plasticine face, gleaming Chicklet teeth and all--to help launch Linda's career? This is Be Cool's idea of a "cool" cameo, and coupled with the fact that Linda sounds like just another passé American Idol contestant, there's ample evidence here that the film is about as hip as the mainstream music industry. That is, not very.

There's no doubt that Get Shorty rode the wake of John Travolta's career-rejuvenating turn in Pulp Fiction, but it's ridiculous that F. Gary Gray and Peter Steinfeld see this as license to go way out of their way to inject wilted references to Tarantino's classic in Be Cool, like when Sin LeSalle delivers a Samual L. Jackson-inspired tirade. Most disappointing is the scene where Travolta and Thurman once again get to dance with each other. Instead of boogying to Chuck Berry while making sex-eyes at one another, they shuffle around passionlessly this time to an insipid song by the Black Eyed Peas. It's the most pointless and clumsily executed scene in a film filled with the superfluous and lackluster. Not cool.

Be Cool Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

The film itself is a clunker, but I have nothing bad to say about MGM's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer, which is sharp and clean and richly colored. I may have spotted a few scattered white flecks, but otherwise, the print is immaculate, and it's also been kept entirely natural, with no smeary, detail-erasing DNR or halo-inducing edge enhancement. The film's grain structure is a bit chunky at times, and this itself cuts down on the amount of fine detail that could potentially be visible, but the image is strongly resolved overall and certainly much improved over the standard definition DVD. Facial features are nicely represented, clothing textures are visible in close-ups, and everything is generally tighter and more vivid. Color can look a bit too intense on occasion--prompting overly ruddy or tanned skin tones--but primaries pop nicely and there are some bold oranges and purples. Black levels are more than adequately dense and the image has a nicely dialed in sense of contrast and pop. Finally, there are no compression or encode-related concerns.

Be Cool Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

Be Cool's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track gets off to a loud start with the Russian mob hit, as glass shatters from gunshots that pop off angrily in the rear channels. The film never quite reaches this level of aural intensity again, but this is still a dynamic mix for a comedy, with punchiness and clarity throughout the range. The surround speakers are only called upon occasionally for effects--like fireworks criss-crossing the soundstage during the cheesy music video at the end--but there's some appreciated ambience, from Los Angeles street sounds and cheering during a Lakers game to the clamor and applause of an Aerosmith concert. The music is where this mix really hits its stride. John Powell's score works well for the film, but the incidental music is where it's at--Kool & the Gang, Earth, Wind & Fire, Bob Dylan, and yes, even the Black Eyed Peas sound great here. Dialogue could probably stand to be a bit higher in the mix at times, but I had no problems ever understanding what was being said. The disc includes optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles.

Be Cool Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras

 

The Blu-ray release of Be Cool comes with the exact same supplements as the 2005 DVD, including a lengthy behind-the-scenes piece, deleted scenes, and several "Close-up" profiles of the actors.

• Be Cool, Very Cool (SD, 21:36): A typical making-of documentary, with interviews with with just about everyone involved, some behind- the-scenes footage, and lots of clips from the film.
• Deleted Scenes (SD, 17:31): Includes fourteen deleted or alternate scenes.
• Gag Reel (SD, 7:20)Yes, I agree. Seven and a half minutes is much too long for a gag reel.
• Music Video: The Rock as Elliot Wilhelm, "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man" (SD, 4:07)
• Close-up: Dance Partners (SD, 3:35): A featurette about the Pulp Fiction-aping dance scene. No kidding, one of the music producers calls this a Last Tango in Paris-type moment between Travolta and Thurman. Really?
• Close-up: The Rock (SD, 6:01)
• Close-up: Andre 3000 (SD, 4:25)
• Close-up: Cedric the Entertainer (SD, 5:26)
• Close-up: Christina Milian (SD, 5:26)
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:23)

Be Cool Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation

 

Be Cool just can't follow its title's command. Dated and unhip and very rarely funny, it's a let down of a sequel to the much better Get Shorty. MGM's Blu-ray release looks and sounds great, though, so if you're a fan--I'm not judging--you'll probably find this disc a worthy upgrade from its DVD counterpart.

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