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Be Cool
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation

Be Cool reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 37 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
3.8 out of 10
based on 38 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 59 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for violence, sensuality, and language including sexual references

Starring John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, André 3000, Steven Tyler, Christina Milian, Harvey Keitel, The Rock, and Danny DeVito

John Travolta is back as Chili Palmer in Be Cool, a sequel to the comedy smash Get Shorty. This time, Chili becomes a different kind of "hit" man -- he abandons the movie industry to bring his wiseguy skills and negotiation tactics to the music business. (MGM)


GENRE(S): Comedy  |  Crime  
WRITTEN BY: Peter Steinfeld
Elmore Leonard (novel)
 
DIRECTED BY: F. Gary Gray  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: June 7, 2005 
Video: June 7, 2005 
Theatrical: March 4, 2005 
RUNNING TIME: 118 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
It's instantly forgettable, but smooth fun most of the way.
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70
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Be Cool is not really cool as "Get Shorty" was, but it's entertaining, a frivolous cocktail rather than a vintage wine.
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67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
John Travolta is nothing if not cool as Chili Palmer.
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63
USA Today Mike Clark
Despite a cast and production that seem to promise one of the year's first movies of any note, Cool never translates its promo-photo flashiness into authenticity on screen.
Read Full Review
63
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Even if you enjoyed the mean, funny 1995 John Travolta-Elmore Leonard crime comedy "Get Shorty"-and many of us did-this forced sequel isn't likely to help you repeat the experience.
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60
Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Rock is brave, fully invested in his character, and with a wide-open face and foolish grin, outrageously funny. It's a singular performance achieved without condescension or camp. Who'd a-thunk it?
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60
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Be Cool more often evokes the image of a screenwriter furiously trying draft after draft to accommodate all the stars. Accommodating the audience becomes a distant priority.
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58
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The hell of it is, Be Cool is tepid entertainment that could be cool if it spent less time entertaining us as if we were demanding a definition of rhythm.
Read Full Review
50
The New Yorker David Denby
Considered as a sequel, Be Cool is not an insult, but it’s a lazy, rhythmless, and redundant piece of moviemaking.
Read Full Review
50
Slate David Edelstein
Travolta keeps you grooving even when the movie's motor runs down--although it has never revved too high to begin with.
Read Full Review
50
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It's a messy, overlong film, but it's impossible to take seriously and therefore more than a little entertaining.
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50
Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Easily one of the most lackadaisical movies I've seen. Don't get me wrong, the plot is entertaining enough, and there are some genuine laughs, but almost everyone in the movie is half-a--ing it.
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50
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Lacks both a focus and an edge, making it an amorphous mess.
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50
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
The author is not to blame. Published in 1999, "Be Cool" is hipper, cooler and better than "Get Shorty," but everything hipper, cooler and better about it is either missing from the film or camped-up beyond recognition.
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50
New York Post Lou Lumenick
A fairly painless, if not particularly stimulating, experience, Gray has no idea how to capitalize on the reunion of "Pulp Fiction" co-stars Travolta and Thurman.
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50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
To reduce Leonard to shtick makes about as much sense as using a scalpel for a butter knife — even when the job gets done, it's just such a dull waste of a sharp implement.
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50
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
In Be Cool, a wonderful cast essays a lively script and manages to make a decent film out of it.
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40
New York Magazine Ken Tucker
A hapless comedy that already seems about ten years out of date, Be Cool is a curious failure.
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40
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Isn't assaultive or dumb, just slack and de-energized, as if its batteries start running down in the first frame.
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40
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
It's kind of -- hmmmm, less than good, a little better than not bad, almost all right, mediocre without being grating, sort of in the C-minus-to-C-minus-minus range.
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40
Empire Olly Richards
A poorly written, directed and acted imitation of the first. Not funny, not clever and, crucially, not cool.
Read Full Review
40
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Like the characters, the scenes pile up but go nowhere; the story seems fragmented, the actors unmotivated, unmoored. Mr. Gray has a feel for pulp, but is seriously off his game here.
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40
Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
Redundant to the point of being absolutely pointless, a sequel that's almost a note-for-note, beat-for-beat redo of its predecessor, only with all the entertaining stuff left out.
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38
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Recycling is a good idea in principle, but certain products should be sent directly to a landfill without re-use. Be Cool, the feeble film follow-up to "Get Shorty," is one of them.
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38
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
A forced and wholly unnecessary sequel.
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38
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
How to count the ways that Be Cool isn't? For one thing, it looks terrible: grainy, ill-lit, edited with blunt, rusty shears.
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38
Premiere Aaron Hillis
Blunderingly out-of-touch, star-studded embarrassment of a sequel.
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38
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A classic species of bore: a self-referential movie with no self to refer to. One character after another, one scene after another, one cute line of dialogue after another, refers to another movie, a similar character, a contrasting image, or whatever.
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30
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Where there was effortless cool in the first movie, there is nothing but manufactured posing here.
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30
Variety David Rooney
A staggeringly flat sequel that trades filmdom for the music bizbiz and could hardly be less cool.
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30
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Director F. Gary Gray doesn't have a clue about how to film this couple dancing, and Peter Steinfeld's crude script confuses character with shtick while racing us through a story where loyalties and motivations turn on a dime.
Read Full Review
30
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Although Travolta is as smooth as ever, the picture is a bust, a grimly unfunny comedy with no connection to reality, and worst of all, running on and on for two dismal hours.
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30
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The sweet nostalgia of Travolta and Thurman's reprise of their "Pulp FIiction" dance-floor flirtation cuts through a lot of rubbish, including the Black Eyed Peas' smutty "Sexy."
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25
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The overlong comedy has few laughs and flirts far too much with racist, homophobic humor. A waste of a fine cast.
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25
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
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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25
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Barely any of it is funny, and if a minute of it is meant in mockery, few of the darts ever find the board.
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10
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Manages the dubious trick of being both execrable and boring.
0
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Be Cool proves that when "cool" evaporates all it leaves are embarrassing little puddles.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 3.8 (out of 10) based on 59 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Sam gave it a2:
One of the slowest, dullest, and flat-out most disatrous dreks I've ever seen.

ou812 me gave it a0:
Still can't actually believe how bad this movie is.

KarlRavage gerd gave it a1:
I threw up in my mouth...and then I threw up again.

Daniel R. gave it a1:
This is a lost, drained, directionless and dismal attempt to somehow recapture or continue the wit and style of "Get Shorty."

Pat C. gave it a5:
A Tarantino-style knock-off with Travolta in a role of non-stop Jedi mind tricks, and a disinterested performance by Thurman.

Sam gave it a3:
A terrifyingly boring, pathetic, and uncool sequel to the classic Get Shorty. Sure the Rock and Chilly Palmer are cool, and Christina Millian has a good voice and knows how to do the piano, but whenit comes to lirics she just plain sucks.

Jay gave it a9:
Hardly the best movie of the year, but you have to give this film props. Be Cool, is a cool, funny, up beat film that picks up after just 10 mins. Christina Milian is excellent as the popstar trying to make it big in the star studded capital! Uma Thurman sizzles in the role of Record exec while John Travolta reprises his role as Chilli Palmer, the coolest guy of them all. The whole cast do a terrific job of bringing the wacky characters to life, with Andre 3000 and Cedric The Entertainer, to The Rock (a gay bodyguard) and Steve Tyler. Be Cool won't be winning any oscars but if your looking for abit of fun on a saturday night and have a few dollars rent this movie, (or buy it) you will not be disappointed!

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