Be Cool (2005)
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30% of critics liked it
(169 reviews) -
48% of users liked it
(196,167 ratings)
Underworld hipster Chili Palmer is back in the entertainment business in this sequel to the 1995 hit Get Shorty, which like the first film is based on a novel by Elmore Leonard. Gangster-turned-movie producer Chili (once again played by John Travolta) has grown tired of the screen trade, especially… More Underworld hipster Chili Palmer is back in the entertainment business in this sequel to the 1995 hit Get Shorty, which like the first film is based on a novel by Elmore Leonard. Gangster-turned-movie producer Chili (once again played by John Travolta) has grown tired of the screen trade, especially after his latest project turned out to be a box-office flop. Chili is looking for new horizons and thinks he may have found his niche when his close friend Tommy Athens (James Woods), a fellow mobster who runs an independent record label, is murdered by Russian gangsters. Chili takes over Athens' record company, Nothing to Lose Records, and begins courting Tommy's girlfriend, Edie (Uma Thurman). Edie is an experienced hand in record production, and together she and Chili spot what would seem to be the ideal act for their label -- Linda Moon (Christina Milian), a beautiful young woman with a powerhouse voice. Linda is stuck, however, in a going-nowhere R&B trio managed by the monumentally sleazy Raji (Vince Vaughn). Chili isn't much concerned about Linda's contract with Raji, but Raji certainly is, and the manager soon takes out a contract on Chili with the same Russian hoods who killed Tommy. Soon Chili is facing all the action he can handle between the Russian gunmen, a music mogul named Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel) who wants Chili to stay out of the business, and Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer), a successful hip-hop producer who wants Chili to pay him the 300,000 dollars he is owed by Tommy. Be Cool also features appearances by The Rock as a gay Samoan bodyguard, Andre Benjamin (aka Andre 3000 from the hip-hop duo Outkast) as a rapper who isn't very good with a gun, and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler as himself. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Directed By
- F. Gary Gray
- Written By
- Peter Steinfeld
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Comedy
- In Theaters
- Mar 4, 2005 Wide
- Studio
- MGM/UA
Critic Reviews
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Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
I was really glad when it was over.
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Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
One of the cuddliest, cutest movies you'll ever see about mobsters and murderers.
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Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
You know a sequel isn't working when, ten minutes into the movie, a voice inside your head starts screaming, 'Please make it stop!'
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James Berardinelli, ReelViews
Be Cool lacks both a focus and an edge, making it an amorphous mess.
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Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com
The movie feels more like a cavalcade of personalities than anything resembling a story.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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John Travolta
as Chili Palmer
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Uma Thurman
as Edie Athens
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Vince Vaughn
as Raji
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Cedric the Entertainer
as Sin La Salle
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André Benjamin
as Dabu
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Steven Tyler
as Himself
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Robert Pastorelli
as Joe Loop
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Christina Milian
as Linda Moon
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Paul Adelstein
as Hy Gordon
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Debi Mazar
as Marla
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Greg Alan Williams
as Darryl
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Harvey Keitel
as Nick Carr
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Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
as Elliot Wilhelm
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Danny DeVito
as Martin Weir
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James Woods
as Tommy Athens
- James Gandolfini
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Kimberly J. Brown
as Tiffany
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Taboo
as Himself
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Minae Noji
as Miss Bangkok



