It’s not every
day you get to have a movie that you believe is cool, even if everyone else may
beg to differ. Be Cool is extremely funny, and the movie’s inside gags are what
cracked me up the most. Its absurd view of the world through the eyes of Chili
is what I find fun.
The movie is a
crime comedy adapted from Elmore Leonard’s 1999 novel of the same name. If you
recall, Danny DeVito was in the prequel to this movie, which was also an
adaptation of Leonard’s 1990 novel Get Shorty—the same name as the 1995 movie.
Get Shorty showed
Chili Palmer’s life when he decided to go into the movie-making business. Here,
in Be Cool, Palmer decides to switch to the music business. The switch would
have been smooth, but you know Palmer from Get Shorty—Palmer wants, Palmer
gets, regardless of who’s in the way.
So, as I said,
Chili Palmer (Travolta) wants to switch businesses again because he takes an
interest in a young singer trying to make it big, but the road to success isn’t
smooth, and Chili’s style of doing things does not make it any easier. So, with
Chili, we navigate the music scene, get tangled up with mobsters, record execs,
and wannabe stars, all while trying to get the girl and make a deal that works
in his favour. It's a comedy about the chaos that comes with chasing fame and
fortune.
The movie
features enough stars, just like the first one, but it just splatters them all
over the screen, like a checklist. Director F. Gary Gray tried to make sure
they all got enough time to deliver their part and add value, but that didn’t
really happen.
I love this movie
and have seen it quite a number of times, laughing my head off every time. The
acting is top-notch, and weird enough, I think The Rock acted better here than
in some of the movies he’s done lately. I have to say though, some characters feel
a bit flat in this movie, and while the plot is fun, it leans on clichés a
little too much. Plus, the humour doesn’t always hit as hard as it should, and
it could go over the viewer's head, especially the inside jokes. I also think
the music part could have been explored more, given its importance. Although,
look out for the Aerosmith and Christina Milian duet.
Be Cool’s Inside
Gags (thanks to Wikipedia):
- At the beginning of the film, Chili sees an
advertisement for Get Lost, which is the sequel to Get Leo—the
film within a film he produced in Get Shorty. He expresses his
distaste for sequels, as well as his dissatisfaction in failing to
prevent Get Lost from being made, despite the fact that he
himself is a character in a sequel. The first line of the movie is Chili
disgustedly dismissing the advertisement.
- Tommy proposes the idea of making a movie about a
young singer who wants to make it big with the help of a record mogul.
This becomes the main plot of the film. Almost every factor Tommy
mentioned in his pitch, such as gangsta rappers and the Russian Mafia,
ends up happening in the film.
- Chili is asked by Marla, the FBI agent, about his
meeting with Tommy. He replies, "I know what you're getting, Marla.
You think that I set this up. But the truth is, he wants me to make a
movie about him. How can we make a movie when the main character gets
popped in the first scene?" The detective replies, "Yeah, not a
bad opening." Tommy responds, "Yeah, you're right. You know,
that worked for American Beauty." The detective and Marla reply,
"Sunset Boulevard." "Or Casino." Well, Tommy was
shot early in the movie, if not the first scene.
- When the idea is brought up to Steven Tyler, he
vehemently rejects the possibility of being in a film and declares that he
is not one of those singers who does bit-part cameos in films—despite the
fact that that’s exactly what he’s doing in this film.
- The one time the word "fuck" is used in
the film is in talking about the MPAA's policy that the curse word can
only be used once without censorship in a PG-13 film without bumping the
rating up to R. Be Cool uses that word only once, in the first
scene: "Do you know that unless you're willing to use the R rating,
you can only say the F-word once? You know what I say: Fuck that. I'm
done." For the rest of the film, several characters come close to
using this cuss word but are cut off or censored in some way before they
can.
- The dancing scene between John Travolta and Uma Thurman is reminiscent of the one they portrayed in Pulp Fiction.
0 comments:
Post a Comment