There should be a time limit for sequels. In other words, if it takes 7-10 years to get a sequel made, maybe it shouldn't be made at all. Take Be Cool for example. After the movie, I overheard several women refer to the movie as the sequel to Pulp Fiction. Be Cool is actually the follow-up to 1995's Get Shorty. Yes, it stars John Travolta and Uma Thurman, who were both in Pulp Fiction but that is where the similarity ends.

Based on another Elmore Leonard novel, Be Cool follows shylock (another word for hit man) turned movie producer Chili Palmer (John Travolta) as he makes the transition from movie producer to music producer. Like Get Shorty, and Elmore Leonard novels in general, Chili is surrounded by a cast of colorful characters. There is Edie Athens (Uma Thurman) the recently widowed record company owner. Her husband Tommy (James Wood) has been killed by some angry Russian mobsters. There is Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel) and his flunky Raji (Vince Vaughn) a black-acting pimp/gangsta wannabe who happens to be managing the beautiful and talented Dairy Queen worker, Linda Moon (Christina Milian). And of course, every pimp needs a bodyguard and Raji's is Elliot (The Rock), an openly gay struggling actor/singer. Then there is Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer) a Harvard educated but street smart record producer who is owed money from Tommy and Edie for his rap group/henchmen the Dub MD's (the buffest group of rappers since Full Force). The Dub MC's are led by Dabu (Andre 3000 from Outkast) a rapper and wanna be gangsta just itching to shoot someone. Throw in cameos from Danny DeVito and Seth Green (from the original Get Shorty cast) and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith playing himself and you have in a nutshell Be Cool.

You may have noticed a lot of big names in the preceding paragraph. You may have also noticed the lack of any real plot. These two observations led my friend Catresa to ask "How could all these big name stars make such a crappy movie?" That's a very good question. Maybe they thought three would be the charm. After all, two Elmore Leonard movies made the transition to film successfully (Out of Sight and Get Shorty). Maybe they thought the sheer wattage of all that star power would naturally lead to success. Maybe they thought that ten years after the original was released, Get Shorty fans would clamor to see this one.

Outside of The Rock, who was hilarious, no other performance stood out. And with this kind of marquee power that says something. John Travolta, who can come off with a lot of charisma, is dull. (NOTE TO JOHN TRAVOLTA: You danced into our hearts in Saturday Night Fever and you've been dancing on our last nerve ever since - Urban Cowboy, Staying Alive, Pulp Fiction, Michael. To paraphrase the Bee Gees 'You Should NOT be Dancing!' Stop! Just stop!) He and Thurman seem more like friends than potential lovers. Vaughn, as the stereotypical 'wigger,' had maybe one truly funny line out of every 10. Cedric The Entertainer, who can normally be counted on to be a major scene-stealer, even came across unevenly. He had one or two really funny scenes but not much more.

If the actors seemed lost, maybe it was because the script (their roadmap) was leading them in the wrong direction. What may have come across as quirky in the book, came across as annoying in the film. The script was murky, unfocused and just not funny. I mean, I cringed, CRINGED IN HORROR, when Harvey Keitel did his little rap number. Ugh! I'm cringing now at the thought. I'm sorry, I need a moment.

Okay, I'm back. Be Cool also failed the watch test. I looked at mine several times and several more times my friends asked me what time it was. It dragged on and on. F. Gary Gray (who last directed The Italian Job) let it go on and on. A little more left on the editing room floor could have resulted in a tighter and faster-paced film as it is it's just bogged down in this huge star-studded cast. 

To sum it up, Be Cool, wasn't.