It had the trademark Elmore Leonard snappy dialogue and had a neatly packed plot. But it was clear that Leonard knew very little about the music biz, and therefore it lacked the edge that his obvious bitter dealings with the movies had informed Get Shorty.
Be Cool the movie is not a very good movie. Not just because it takes pretty much the setting and a few character names from the book and junks the rest. Like I said, the book is not all that. Indeed the idea of inserting gangster rappers into the plot improves the soft country/rock setting of the book: it genuinely gives you people who might carry guns. It genuinely does not think of the consequences though. A major character shoots someone else in a public office, and nothing happens to him. This, like the version of the music biz we see, does not convince. In particular hiring Christina Milian as your hopeful starlet and making her since lousy songs. And since when would singing with Aerosmith break an R’n’B act?
As the film cannot keep the audience sated with its plot, it attempts to stuff the supporting roles with comic quirks. This is successful in as much as Vince Vaughn in Made mode, and The Rock get to show their comic chops. The Rock’s gay Roger Moore-a-like actor is so full of glee it reminds you what a good comic actor can do. Unfortunately everything else in the film is second hand: in particular the bizarre reprise of the Pulp Fiction dance between Travolta and Thurman. There it was stylised and cool. Here it is granddad dancing to the Black Eyed Peas and excruciating. Be Cool as a film is as bad as Be Cool is a title for a film.