'Be Cool' pulpy and feverish

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

BE COOL (PG-13) Two-and-a-Half Stars (Fair-to-Good) F. Gary Gray's flawed but amusing sequel to "Get Shorty" with John Travolta reprises Travolta's Chili Palmer role. The former mob extortionist jumps from the movie industry to the record business. Uma Thurman co-stars and Vince Vaughn stands out in the large ensemble. MGM, 115 minutes.

Travolta revives Chili for "Be Cool," an adaptation of Leonard's second Palmer novel, in which the popular character shifts his focus from the movies to Hollywood's recording industry.

But this time F. Gary Gray directs in a manner less precise, less organized and less compelling. And yet, this lazy, loosey-goosey sequel entertains, almost in spite of itself. The effect is not unlike that of last season's "Ocean's Twelve," another unfocused sequel that we enjoyed — modestly — because the actors seemed to be having so much fun making it.

As "Be Cool" opens, Palmer has grown tired of the movie business, but doesn't stumble into his next career stop until a recording-industry friend, Tommy Athens (James Woods), is gunned down in a drive-by assassination. Palmer visits his friend's widow, Edie (Uma Thurman), and offers to help her keep Tommy's record label going. In fact, he recently heard a fabulous young singer named Linda Moon (singer Christina Milian) and wants to manage her and record her for the label.

Ah, but Linda is already under contract to a pair of wacky losers, a wannabe-black white promoter named Raji (Vince Vaughn) and a scruffy veteran of the music wars named Nick (Harvey Keitel).

Vaughn is particularly hilarious, dressed like a '70s Superfly pimp, strutting and chest-pounding with over-the-top street attitude, and mouthing such bountiful banalities as "Stop hating, start participating" and "If that's what this is gonna be, it's gonna be that."

Two other rough-tough parties also muscle into the picture, a gang of Russian mobsters and a billionaire rap producer (Cedric the Entertainer) and his posse of gangsta rappers, weightlifters and bodyguards. You can see where it's a challenge for Chili to be cool in the midst of all that potential mayhem.

The narrative by Leonard and screenwriter Peter Steinfeld gets a bit too caught up in Moon's attempts to become a music star, too often pushing the wacky crime elements into the background. Segments of a simplistic star-is-born scenario that seem hijacked from "Raise Your Voice," butts up against Chili's super-cool cynicism.

Still, Travolta's Chili is the ultimate "cool," as billed, and it's fun to watch him once again on the dance floor with his "Pulp Fiction" partner, Thurman.

But even here Gray stumbles: The scene is distractingly filmed, with swirling cameras and too many close-ups. Talented dancers should always be shot head to toe. As Gene Kelly used to say, keep the camera still and let the feet move.

Rated PG-13, with violence, innuendo. profanity.