Be Cool

Starring: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Christina Milian, Cedric the Entertainer, Vince Vaughn, Andre Benjamin, The Rock and so on...
Directed by: F. Gary Gray

Bluntly speaking? Be Cool could use some time management editing…but it's still a rather entertaining gigglefest of ridiculous fun; a Hollywood movie to end Hollywood movies! Hilarious stand out performances by Vince Vaughn, The Rock and Andre Benjamin keep you hootin' so hard you hardly notice the film's about a half an hour too long.

Story goes…Shylock Chili Palmer (John Travolta rehashing his Get Shorty role - and basically the only similarity to that film) is now a big kahuna in the movie business. His music biz buddy, Tommy Athens (James Woods) would like to combine their shindigs. Perhaps a film about Tommy's rise to the top of the music game? But in mid-pitch Tommy gets is eighty-sixed by a rodent-helmet-headed Russian mafia lizard toting a semi-automatic.

Now Chili finds himself assisting Tommy's widow.

The widow, Edie (Uma Thurman), is no damsel in distress however. She and Tommy had an open kind of marriage as well as the secretly floundering record label NTL.

The truth is this record label needs a hit player - and fast. Chili can help there too. Tommy had told him about a young singer who wants to be in film named Linda Moon (Christina Milian). Linda could be the next JLo - but without the need to produce and sample the musak to death to create-a-hit (if you know what I'm sayin' and I think that you do...). But Linda is presently under contract with Raji (Vince Vaughn) and Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel) of Car-o-Sell Records. No worries - Chili doesn't squabble, he just informs.

Here he informs the tightly wound mock-gangsta caricature Raji, that Linda is now under his management and saunters away in that patented Travolta, err, Chili, shuffle. You can practically see the hating form in Raji's hamster sized brain…

But there's another snafu…seems Tommy died owing the big under world-y producer Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer) about $300,000 smakaroons. Now Sin is all up in Edie's face - and he and his particinpatin' posse, rap stars Dub MDs (which includes Outkast's Andre Benjamin), roll down with the big boys and take no prisoners homey dogg.

I'll stop.

Basically the story is about a rising pop star and the evildoers that launch her career. Folks get whacked, talk jive, sing and make big deals while several weapons are pointed at their heads. It's way out there from reality - but still kinda fun. The draw is the delectable & delish Vaughnatini Vince Vaughn and the brawn buffcake Rock. I want to see a spin off series on these two characters on UPN Mr. Jones. Vaughn plays an all-too-familiar clueless white slice of bread who speaks in the vernacular of da streets and dresses like a bad pimp extra from a MTV special. The Rock is a Samoan hitman named Elliott, sporting luscious polyester blends and coordinated chainwares, struggling to be and actor. His claim to fame is his ability to raise an eyebrow ala John Belushi…Elliott is also flamboyantly gay. Sound like comedy with a K? Not in the hands of these two talents. And, Andre Benjamin plays a posse member with odd idiosyncrasies that'll have you snort laughing in convulsions, as well.

The rest of the crew seems to be playing themselves - their film selves. The inside laughs are obvious, frequent, and plain old silly fun, making the over all feeling light and fluffy. Award material this aint - it's a few rock videos strung together - wafer thinly - with a generic behind-the-scenes comedy script chock full of talents (there's even an Aerosmith concert scene Don Kirschner would be proud of). If you love to watch Vaughn rapid fire rants, or Travolta chill the scene, or Uma sex up the celluloid? Go. If not wait for Netflicks.

Snack Recommendation: Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles