Review of Be Cool (2005) by Jess K — 04 Mar 2010

1) I adore Get Shorty. 2) This was on TV in the background as I did other things, and that was the best part of watching it. Essentially everything about Be Cool, sadly even Harvey Keitel, is a downgrade from Get Shorty.

Chili Palmer, who had been a terrific combination of stoic cool and giddy enthusiasm, feels like a mere tool in service of an uninteresting story playing sage to a cast apparently so vacuous they view obviousness as revelation.

The rest of the characters, especially Vaughn's, are unfunny. Even Steven Tyler fails in his part, playing himself. The cast commits to their roles but appear as pale caricatures when compared to Get Shorty, with the best performance belonging to The Rock.

.. so that's a horrible sign. In fact, all the best scenes of the sequel are pale rehashes of those in the original. Chili walking into a room and breaking Ray Bones' nose was fresh 11 years before, but seeing that same scene acted out over again, knowing exactly what's coming, is lazy, dull and pointless.

In fact, that's the best description of this movie: pointless.