Sounds like the newest from Chili Palmer BE really damn COOL!!!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with some more early words about BE COOL, the GET SHORTY sequel starring Travolta, The Bride, The Rock and The Keitel among others. All the early word has been very good and the below two reviews are no different. Funnily enough, what I keep hearing is The Rock steals his scenes in the flick, which I can't wait to see. He can be really funny and charismatic guy, even if he does do shitty remakes of classic '70s good ol' boy movies... hehe. Take a look, squirts!

Hello, all. It’s Opie again. I’ve written a few reviews from Sundance in the past, and I loved doing it, but as I’m not really one who gets a whole lot of access to advance screenings, I figured that mid-January would be the only time I’d get to throw AICN a scoop. That was, until I got “recruited” for a test-screening this week for “Be Cool,” the sequel to “Get Shorty.” I will keep the following review as spoiler-free as possible, but you may have a different definition of the word “spoiler” than I do. I’m not going to give away the funniest lines or jokes, but I will mention specific scenes. Figure out now if that’s okay with you. Okay? Good.

Because it had been almost ten years since I had seen “Get Shorty,” I rented it the night before, just to get a refresher on the world of Chili Palmer. It proved to be a wise move, from a reviewers’ standpoint, which I’ll explain in a minute.

The story: Since the events in “Get Shorty,” Chili Palmer has made two films, “Get Leo,” which he was in production on at the end of “Shorty,” and its sequel, “Get Lost,” which was not quite as successful, artistically or financially. He’s unsatisfied with the movie business, and is considering a return to loan-sharking. When Chili is the sole witness to the murder of his friend, a sleazy record producer (by the Russian mob), he sees an opportunity to change occupations. He decides he wants to be a music mogul, and assumes control over the dead man’s label, courts a rising new talent (the smoking hot Christina Milian), and muscles his way through cut-throat hip hop producers, childish promoters, bodyguards, cops, and the aforementioned Russian mobsters, all the while courting his dead friend’s ravishing wife (Uma Thurman).

The movie overall is fun, and breezy. Snappy dialogue (although the cut I saw had too many pauses, and not enough Elmore Leonard rat-a-tat to it, there’s plenty of time to fix that), decent musical performances, some really inventive camera shots, and a score of fun cameos.

Now, I’ll just start with the bad news. The storyline, such as it is… is a carbon-copy of of “Get Shorty.” Just as every episode of Scooby-Doo, or The Incredible Hulk TV shows used pretty much the same script, just as Marty McFly played out the exact same scenes in every Back to the Future movie, and only the time period was different, so I fear the Chili Palmer films will follow in the “Mad Libs” mold. Take the Get Shorty script, remove all the nouns, and replace them all with new ones. For “Be Cool,” we have swapped the movie industry for the music industry, a “great script” for a “talented singer,” a “rival loan shark who owns the debts Chili is collecting” for a “rival music producer who own the talented singer’s contract,” etc, etc. And the plot plays out exactly the same. Exactly. And then there are entire scenes that are ripped off from the previous film.

Did you love the scene in “Get Shorty” where Travolta completely disarmed Gandolfini in a parking garage, sending him to the floor, then helped him up with concern, saying “Why are you working for that guy anyway? You’re better than this”? Did you? That’s just great, because in “Be Cool,” you get to see the same scene again, with a different bodyguard.

How about the scene in “Shorty” where Hackman is expecting some rough characters at his office, and Chili tells him where to have them sit, not to do any talking, and not to mention the other script, etc… Then, when the toughs arrive, Hackman gets nervous, forgets all the advice, and spills everything, much to Chili’s dismay? Great scene. So great they’ve decided to put that one in “Be Cool” as well. Same scene. Different characters.

Remember at the end of “Shorty,” where Chili tricks Dennis Farina into going to the airport locker to get his money? The locker that had 500 grand and cocaine in it? The one being watched by the police? I won’t give anything away, but there is a device that is very similar to that locker in “Be Cool,” and Chili again tricks another character into trying to collect from it, and you’ll know it precisely when you see it.

Don’t get me wrong. I see the need, when making a sequel, to carry over certain jokes, and character traits, for continuity’s sake (such as Indy’s fear of snakes, or Marty McFly hating to be called “chicken”), I really do. There are a lot of those as well, and they are comforting and familiar. Like how Chili’s main intimidation tactic is to say “Hey. Look at me.” The way that, in this universe, if you wake up, and the TV’s on, you know someone is waiting for you in the living room with a gun, so you’d better put on a shirt and come downstairs to see who it is.

But ripping entire scenes out of the first movie’s script? It just seems lazy.

And that’s too bad, because these characters deserve a better story. In this deep, talented ensemble cast, most everyone in it refuses to play their persona. Everyone plays against type. And when the outcome of the story is so predictable, thank God you can just sit back and watch these fascinating, often hilarious characters go through the machinations of the plot, and still be entertained.

The Rock will grab the most press for his role here. He plays, as you may have already heard, a gay bodyguard, who sings, dances, and really wants to be an actor. This could have been simple embarrassing caricature, but man, The Rock really commits to this role, and breathes serious life into the guy. I was surprised. There's even a nice recurring joke where he pokes fun at his trademark "eyebrow raise." Good stuff.

Vince Vaughn also plays against type, though his character is a little broader and more stereotypical. He’s a wannabe pimp/promoter, and again, he makes a great bad guy, although for most of the film, he resembles Guillermo Diaz. Yeah, the dude from Half-Baked. But at least he doesn’t resemble any character Vaughn has played before. He and The Rock get most of the laughs.

Cedric the Entertainer, surprisingly, played a multi-faceted character, not a buffoon, as is his forte. As the aforementioned cut-throat rap producer, with an entourage of inept rappers as bodyguards (led by Andre 3000 of Outkast, channeling Chris Tucker), he was brilliant, and especially when he gives a (Samuel L. Jackson-esque) speech about racism… while holding a man at gunpoint.

That was one of more than a dozen Pulp Fiction-y moments in the film. I guess you can’t really avoid that sort of thing in a movie which has a Travolta/Thurman romance at the center, but the scene where they dance together… Well, it goes on forever. Minutes and minutes of Travolta and Thurman dancing. I thought it was a bit much, especially when all I could think about during that scene was “Pulp Fiction.” I noted as much on my comment card, so maybe that scene will be trimmed when the film hits theaters.

So, all in all, they’ve got a pretty good movie here, with the exception that huge elements of the plot have been completely recycled from the previous film. But, hey, if I hadn’t rented “Shorty” the night before, I wouldn’t have even noticed. I think this review is focusing more on the negative than actually making the point of just how funny this movie is, so let me just stress the point: There are some great laughs to be had here. Just not too many surprises.

Opie

Now on to the illustrious and, I hear, aptly named King Dong!!!