Be Cool

Be Cool is the sequel to 1995's Get Shorty, and once again we follow the story of Chilli Palmer, a loan shark turned movie producer who now wants to enter the music world.
Having not seen Get Shorty myself nor my friends, we were wondering why wasn't this called 'Get Shorty II', and apparently is because both movies are based on books by Elmore Leonard, and word of mouth say those are better.
People I've talked to don't think Get Shorty is great but they can't wait for Be Cool. I have no interest at all in seeing Get Shorty, and I don't think Be Cool is good. A couple of characters are great, but the movie is poor.

John Travolta plays Chilli Palmer, who wants to get into the music business by managing a young upcoming singer called Lynda Moon (played by real life upcoming singer Christina Milian), whose current manager, Raji (Vince Vaughn), is not going to get her anywhere any time soon. He also thinks he's a black pimp. Raji's bodyguard Elliot Wilhelm (The Rock) is a not sure he's gay aspiring actor, and his partner at the discography is Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel). Nothing to say about him.
Chilli is trying to help Edie Athens's (Uma Thurman) discography by getting Lynda, but they have another problem as they owe a lot of money to Sin LaSalle (Cedric The Entertainer), a hiphop music manager who around with his posse which includes Dabu (Andre 3000 of Outkast), a hiphop superstar who likes guns but can't handle them.
The movie goes around and around complicated situations for our leads Chilli and Edie including the Russian mob, the cops and Steven Tyler (of Aerosmith) playing himself.

The characters go from wasted (Danny DeVito and James Woods) to easy laughs but tiring (Vince Vaughn thinks he's black!) to boring performances (Travolta and Thurman).
I only loved The Rock (the big guys are getting funnier between him and Vin Diesel) and Christina Milian. Great characters. Though her probably because I've never heard her sing in real life, but this looks a way to get her mainstreamed.
Uma Thurman has a very hot and sexy opening scene in a bikini (her only good scene), and then her character turns into an uninteresting woman following Chilli everywhere, even to a bar for drinks where they dance. We all remember the greatness that was Travolta and Thurman's dance scene in the revolutionary and super cool Pulp Fiction, so yeah, they must do it again! But it doesn't work here. It's boring and long.
Cedric The Entertainer does his usual comedy, nothing new. Same for Harvey Keitel who plays his very repeated tough old bad guy with power.
John Travolta is the biggest disappointment here, with the same boring facial expression all the time, being calmed all the time against any situation and telling everybody the title of the movie. And that title doesn't work by the way, because yes, they all keep the calm and everything, but they're not cool. They should've called this 'Be Calm' instead.

At the start of the movie, Travolta and Woods an idea for a movie, and that's what this movie's story turns into. They also talk about actors making sequels just for the money, and that's what this movie turns into too, a moneymaking disappointment.