Be Cool
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: March 4, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
37
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
18
Negative:
15
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It's instantly forgettable, but smooth fun most of the way. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Be Cool is not really cool as "Get Shorty" was, but it's entertaining, a frivolous cocktail rather than a vintage wine. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
John Travolta is nothing if not cool as Chili Palmer. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael 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. Read full review
63
USA TodayMike 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
60
Village VoiceMichael 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? Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubScott 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. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa 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 YorkerDavid 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
SlateDavid 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 ChronicleMarc Savlov
It's a messy, overlong film, but it's impossible to take seriously and therefore more than a little entertaining. Read full review
50
Film ThreatPete 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. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack 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. Read full review
50
New York PostLou 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. Read full review
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. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
In Be Cool, a wonderful cast essays a lively script and manages to make a decent film out of it. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Lacks both a focus and an edge, making it an amorphous mess. Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverRobert 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. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla 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. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Isn't assaultive or dumb, just slack and de-energized, as if its batteries start running down in the first frame. Read full review
40
Washington PostStephen 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. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Ken Tucker
A hapless comedy that already seems about ten years out of date, Be Cool is a curious failure. Read full review
40
EmpireOlly Richards
A poorly written, directed and acted imitation of the first. Not funny, not clever and, crucially, not cool. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence 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. Read full review
38
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
A forced and wholly unnecessary sequel. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerSteven 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. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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. Read full review
38
PremiereAaron Hillis
Blunderingly out-of-touch, star-studded embarrassment of a sequel. Read full review
30
VarietyDavid Rooney
A staggeringly flat sequel that trades filmdom for the music bizbiz and could hardly be less cool. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Where there was effortless cool in the first movie, there is nothing but manufactured posing here. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKevin 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. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineMaitland 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." Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJonathan 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
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The overlong comedy has few laughs and flirts far too much with racist, homophobic humor. A waste of a fine cast. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeWesley 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. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter 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!" Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Manages the dubious trick of being both execrable and boring.
0
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Be Cool proves that when "cool" evaporates all it leaves are embarrassing little puddles. Read full review
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