Talk about "Be Cool" here:
Review by: Breanne Derby
Plot Summary
"Be Cool" is the sequel to 1995's "Get Shorty", starring John Travolta as Chili Palmer, an ex-mobster who has become a part of the movie industry. In "Be Cool", Chili has tired of the movie industry and its callous and greed-driven ways, and is looking to begin producing things for the music industry instead. He finds a singer, Linda Moon (played by Christina Milan) and attempts to create a star out of her, but soon finds that the music industry and the movie industry aren't all that different. On the road to Linda's stardom, he runs into some traffic jams and must find a way out of them before someone gets hurt.
Review
First off, know that in order to understand this movie it isn't really necessary to see "Get Shorty". I haven't seen "Get Shorty", and I didn't have an incredibly difficult time understanding the plot (as you can see in my summary above). At first, the movie was moderately confusing, and I felt as though I had kind-of been thrown into it without any idea of what was going on, but I'm fairly sure that it did not begin where "Get Shorty" ended (it seemed as if a great deal of time had passed), so I make the fair assumption that anyone would feel that they had been thrown into the action.
During the first twenty minutes or so, (give or take, because I have a horrible sense of time), all the major characters were established, but things were happening as well. I almost want to go back and watch it again because I feel like I missed so much the first time, and I think I would understand it better having seen the movie all the way through now.
For a long time, it seemed like nothing was really happening, and I found it ironic that in the first scene Chili said to a man "to make a movie you've got to have a plot" (or something along those lines), when this movie didn't really have much of one for quite a while, just Chili Palmer trying to elude death.
As the film progressed, it got gradually better. I was incredibly baffled in the very beginning, but as time went on, I understood things better, and the quality increased. Eventually a plot was established, well, actually, it was sort-of like three or-four or-five plots all rolled into one huge master-plot, and at first I really hated this concept a lot, as it left me very confused. After a while, however, the different plots seemed to fit into one-another like puzzle pieces, and I was finally getting an idea of what the big picture was.
The big picture, to be quite honest, was mediocre. I was somewhat irritated by the fact that throughout the movie, there were lots of pop-culture references and many famous names, faces, and products were used. It was kind-of like a giant advertisement at times. Towards the end, however, the film got better, and it was fairly entertaining as everything fell into place.
Conclusion
All in all, I gave this movie two-and-a-half out of five stars because it was interesting, but very bizarre. Some of the scenes were very funny, and I laughed loudly (though no-one else in the theatre did), but most of the humor was more subtle, in the idea that the movie was somewhat about itself. Irony was definitely used in this film, and I found it to be funny at times, and there were some very good scenes, but mostly, it was just very strange, and it seemed like the writers had ideas for three or four movies that were kind-of underdeveloped, so they decided to just cram them all into one movie. I'd probably watch this again, just to see if there was something I missed the first time, and I will probably rent "Get Shorty" now, just to see if it was necessary for a better understanding of "Be Cool".
After Seeing "Get Shorty"
Now that I've seen "Get Shorty" I feel that I can accurately make a judgement of this film. It is slightly worse than the original (though not enough to merit it a different star-rating), but as a whole, it is very similar to the exact same thing. The two films have basically the same plot (mobster-turned-moviemaker vs. moviemaker-turned-musicmaker) and the same predicaments arise throughout the duration of the film. It is amazing how very much alike these two films are. It's almost as if "Be Cool" isn't the sequel to "Get Shorty" at all, but the exact same movie, with different supporting characters. I'm amazed at how similar these two films are to one another, and it's not even remotely necessary to have seen "Get Shorty" to understand "Be Cool," but if you had the plot might be a bit more predictable, and you would know why Danny DeVito is referred to as Martin Weir while every other famous actor or actress goes by their real name.
