March 4, 2005 - Be Cool, the long-awaited sequel to Get Shorty, opens this weekend along with Vin Diesel's family comedy The Pacifier. We're also covering the limited release films The Jacket, starring Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley, and Gunner Palace.
Be Cool
Cast: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Christina Milian, Vince Vaughn, The Rock,
Cedric the Entertainer, Harvey Keitel, Danny DeVito, Andre Benjamin, Steven
Tyler, Robert Pastorelli
Director: F. Gary Gray
Writers: Peter Steinfeld, Elmore Leonard (Novel)
Rated: PG-13 for Violence, Sensuality and Language Including Sexual
References
The Scoop: When a friend is offed while they're at lunch, Chili takes the opportunity to visit the guy's wife, Edie (Uma Thurman), and pitch himself as her new business partner at an independent record label. With a promising young pop-star-in-training as his protégé (Christina Milian), Chili has to juggle her faux-urban manager (Vince Vaughn), his gay, wannabe-actor bodyguard (The Rock – nice!), Russian mobsters, and an eloquent gangsta music producer (Cedric the Entertainer) to save the label and land a hit – and keep from getting popped himself.
The Review: Jeff Otto gives Be Cool 2 1/2 out of 5 stars. He says, "I just found myself waiting for the next scene with The Rock or Cedric the Entertainer and his crew. Be Cool has too many characters that just don't matter ... They just take up time and make the movie longer. ... In the end, Be Cool is just a mishmash that doesn't gel."
Read Jeff's review of Be Cool.
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The Pacifier
Cast: Vin Diesel, Lauren Graham, Faith Ford, Carol Kane, Brad Garrett,
Brittany Snow
Director: Lawrence Guterman
Writers: Lance Khazei, Tom Gammill, Rob McKittrick, Max Pross
Rated: PG for Action Violence, Language and Rude Humor
The Scoop: Vin Diesel stars as Navy SEAL Shane Wolfe who is assigned to protect the five out-of-control children of an assassinated scientist working on vital government secrets. Shane is suddenly faced with juggling two outrageously incompatible jobs: fighting the bad guys while keeping house.
The Review: Jeff Otto gives The Pacifier no friggin' stars at all! Deal with it. He says, "Son of the Mask is a stroke of genius in comparison to The Pacifier."
Read Name's review of The Pacifier.
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The Jacket
Cast: Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Jason
Leigh
Director: John Maybury
Writer: Massy Tadjedin
Rated: R for Violence, Language and Brief Sexuality/Nudity
The Scoop: A military veteran (Brody) returns to his native Vermont suffering from bouts of amnesia. When he is accused of murder and lands in an asylum, a well-meaning doctor (Kristofferson) puts him on a heavy course of experimental drugs, restrains him in a jacket-like device, and locks him away in a body drawer of the basement morgue. This process sends him on a journey into the future, where he can foresee his death (but not who did it or how) in four day's time. Now the only question that matters is: can the woman he meets in the future (Knightley) save him?
The Review: Todd Gilchrist gives The Jacket 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. He says, "The Jacket amounts to significantly more than the sum of its familiar parts. While I doubt this will be rounding out any Top Ten lists at the end of the year, it's a thoughtful, compelling alternative to the genre tripe that's been occupying theaters of late."
Read Todd's review of The Jacket.
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