The movie so cool I had to see it twice before beginning this review. Well, not really, but it was a good way to start. It is true that I saw it twice, though. Sadly, my opinion of it dropped upon a repeat viewing. I remember Get Shorty, a dryly comic tale of a loan shark who desired to get into the movie business. It was a well written and acted story from director Barry Sonnenfeld, and based on the novel by Elmore Leonard. Now, ten years later, F. Gary Gray takes the reigns of the sequel, also based on an Elmore Leonard novel.
The first time I saw it, I thought it was a funny film that kept in line with the preceding film. The talent was there, great cast headed up by the returning John Travolta, an Leonard novel, and the capable F. Gary Gray at the helm. So what went wrong? A few things. The flow is rather disjointed, many sections come across more like skits, and there are odd tonal shifts throughout, not to mention the acting is not always up to snuff.
The story opens with Chili Palmer (Travolta) having a meeting with a soon to be deceased Tommy Athens (James Woods). This inspires Chili to make a play for the music business, which places him in the crosshairs of Raji(Vince Vaughan), a promoter whose main talent, Linda Moon(Christina Milian), was stolen away. It also brings him under fire from Russian mobsters who wish to get rid of a witness. Not to mention the producer, Sin Lasalle(Cedric the Entertainer), who is intent on getting back the money that Tommy owed him, by going through his widow, Edie (Uma Thurman), who is working with Chili. Plus there is Steven Tyler, some musical interludes, a gay bodyguard who wants to be an actor(The Rock). Like I said, this movie is all over the place.
The entertainment of this movie is rendered by numerous scenes rather than the overarching tale it tells. One thing that is evident is that this is clearly not at the level of the first, where the first was smartly written well acted and had a wonderful dry humor to it, this one seems to be too busy going for the quick skit, or pop culture reference. Things like the Travolta and Thurman dance sequence, trying to recapture the magic of Pulp Fiction and ending up just a pale imitation. And then there is the American Idol mentality with the music sequences. That is not to saw I didn't enjoy it, but it is a matter of it should have been much better.
John Travolta appears to be having some fun, but his performance seems to be more like an impersonation of himself playing Chili in Get Shorty. Almost as if he is just phoning in the job. Uma Thurman does a decent job as the grieving widow, despite not getting much to do. The fun of the work is in the supporting cast, mainly in the form of The Rock. He poked fun at his tough guy persona and his wrestling career, while also showing that he can do more than just action and is willing to take a chance, I hope he has a long career. He has some great scenes, including delivering a monologue from Bring it On, and also when trying on a new suit, very funny stuff. Then there is Andre Benjamin as Dabu, Sin's nephew, stealing the all his scenes trying to act gangsta.
I had mentioned the strange shift in tone. There are the flat out goofy scenes with Vince Vaughn. The dryly comic scenes with Travolta. And the scene that felt terribly out of place, when the Russian mob boss refers to Cedric using the "N" word, while it leads to a wonderful monologue, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed out of place with the rest of the film, and rather unnecessary.
Bottomline. While it had it's humorous points, it was too random and the narrative was weak. I don't know whether I like or not. It is not a great film by any stretch, and is a pale sequel. It does have it's fun points but the story is so chopped up that the story becomes secondary to the scene setups which brings it down. I guess it was entertaining enough.
Mildly Recommended.
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