Be Cool: Special Edition (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Animation Featurette-Making Of-Be Cool, Very Cool Outtakes Deleted Scenes Featurette-Dance Partners Featurette-The Rock Featurette-André 3000 Featurette-Cedric The Entertainer Featurette-Christina Milian Music Video-The Rock As Elliott-'You Ain't Woman Enough To Take My Man' Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	114:40
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (46:30) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	F. Gary Gray
Studio Distributor	MGM	Starring	John Travolta Uma Thurman Vince Vaughn Cedric The Entertainer André 3000 Steven Tyler Robert Pastorelli Christina Milian Paul Adelstein Debi Mazar Gregory Alan Williams Harvey Keitel The Rock
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	John Powell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    In 1995, a very enjoyable and successful satirical comedy on the movie business hit our screens. It was full of interesting and quirky characters, funny situations and great music. It also won John Travolta a Golden Globe. Its name was Get Shorty. Now, 10 years later, a sequel has been released, again starring John Travolta as Chili Palmer. Danny De Vito returns but this time really only as a cameo, again playing actor Martin Weir. Other than this the cast is completely new.

    This film opens some time after the first film finished. Chili is getting bored with the movie business. He is approached by a friend of his, Tommy Athens (James Woods), who wants him to produce a movie starring a young singer. When Tommy is gunned down during their first meeting by a Russian gangster, Chili decides to go and see the young singer, Linda Moon (Christina Milian) perform. On a whim, he decides to become her new manager and informs her current manager, Raji (Vince Vaughan), that his services are no longer required. Raji acts like he's an African-American pimp and is accompanied by his bodyguard, a gay Samoan aspiring actor, Elliot Wilhelm (The Rock in the funniest performance in the film). This move annoys Raji's partner, Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel), and he decides to have Chili killed. Chili, meanwhile is getting on friendly terms with the widow of Tommy Athens, Edie (Uma Thurman), and is trying to go into business with her to run her husband's record label. This brings him a new set of enemies in the form of Sin LaSalle (Cedric The Entertainer), a rap producer and the Dub MD's, a gangster rap group. The leader of the Dub MD's is the incompetent gangster, Dabu (Andre 3000 from Outkast). The Russian gangsters are also out to get Chili, and the rest of the film involves him trying to avoid getting killed while also achieving what he wants to in the music industry.

    This sequel, like so many before, is not a patch on the original film, with a much less interesting plot, a lack of real humour (except when The Rock is on-screen), and a really uninspiring soundtrack, especially when compared to the original which was one of the great soundtracks of recent years. There are some good things here including, as I mentioned earlier, the laugh-out-loud funny character of Elliot played with great gusto by The Rock and an amusing opening scene which includes James Woods and John Travolta making fun of sequels and a great joke about swearing in movies which you may not get until the end of the film. Andre 3000 also seems to be having fun as Dabu, however everyone else just feels like they are going through the motions. Cameos are many and varied including Aerosmith, The Black Eyed Peas, Sergio Mendes, Anna Nicole Smith, Seth Green and others. Basically, this film lacks the spark and verve of the original film and does not really have a strong enough plot to justify its major league cast.

    For those who find them really annoying both discs in this set contain anti-piracy ads which cannot be skipped through or fast-forwarded through.

    In short, Be Cool is just a little too cool for its own good, but is probably worth renting just to see The Rock singing You Ain't Woman Enough to Take my Man or doing his monologue from Bring It On.

Video

    The video quality is excellent with no real issues to report.

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio16x9 enhanced, which is most likely the original aspect ratio although I have no facts to prove it.

    The picture was extremely clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was also excellent.

    The colour was wonderful, rich and solid throughout.

    The only artefact I noticed in the entire running time was one very minor patch of aliasing on a blind at 77:25.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired and five other languages. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read.

    The layer change occurs at 46:30 and was not particularly noticeable.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good but a little uninspiring.

    This DVD contains five audio options, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s and the same in German, French, Italian and Spanish.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score of this film by John Powell is nothing special and this film really misses the great work of John Lurie and the songs of Booker T and the MGs from the first film.

    The surround speakers added some mild directional effects and atmosphere. I was surprised how little surround sound there was in such a recent major studio film.

    The subwoofer added bass to the music but was not particularly noticeable otherwise.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The extras are contained on a second disc and although there are quite a few, only one or two piqued my interest. All the extras are presented in 4x3 and (despite what the box says) Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. Subtitles are available for the extras.

Menu

    The menu included music and the ability to select scenes, languages and subtitles.

Disc 2

Making Of - 'Be Cool, Be Very Cool' (20:41)

    A promotional style making of which includes interviews with most of the main cast members and the crew and covers topics such as the characters, casting, improvisation and its use in the film and how wonderful it was to work with everyone (especially the director).

Gag Reel (7:01)

    A decent quality gag reel with some funny stuff-ups but probably a little too much material.

Deleted Scenes (16:31) 

    Some moderately interesting deleted scenes including a number of cut cameos by people like Patti LaBelle, Fred Durst and more of Anna Nicole Smith. Also included are a slightly different opening and a new character who has a recurring verbal spar with Chili. Nothing spectacular but not complete rubbish either.

Close-Ups

    This sub menu gives access to five separate featurettes generally focusing on one actor. Included are:

• Dance Partners (3:25) - Focuses on Uma Thurman and John Travolta's dance scene in this film which reprises their scene in Pulp Fiction.
• The Rock (5:45) - Includes interviews with The Rock and covers his character and how he found playing the role of a gay man and the singing and dancing.
• Andre 3000 (4:12) - He talks about his role and the fashion that his character wears.
• Cedric The Entertainer (5:12) - Discusses his role and how he found playing a bad guy.
• Christina Milian (5:12) - Includes discussion of her talents including singing and dancing, preparing for the role and working with Vince Vaughan. He is also interviewed.

Music Video - The Rock as Elliot 'You Ain't Woman Enough to take my Man' (3:55)

    Introduced by the director, this is the full version of the music video we see during the film of The Rock singing a country and western song written for a woman. A hoot!

Theatrical Trailer (2:15)

    Pretty standard theatrical trailer.

    This movie has been released with exactly the same specifications globally excepting that the local release has more languages. May as well call it a draw except if you need a version dubbed in a European language.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is a little uninspiring.

    The set has a second disc for extras, but most of them are pretty uninteresting.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall