Mark Goes to the Movies

Be Cool (dir. F. Gary Gray) This movie, like Oceans 12, was a letdown from a first version (counting Soderberg's Ocean as the first). One thing Steve Soderbergh knows (or used to) : for this kind of a comedy to work it's gotta be light on its feet, and it's gotta move fast. Neither is much the case in this movie. Genuninely funny bits rise up out of the plot dough every 20 minutes or so. John Travolta phones his blue-eyed cool role in. Uma Thurman tries really hard, and I think she's getting to be a better, looser actress as she gets older. And I loved Robert Pastorelli 's very greasy hit man and Andre 3000's trigger-happy gunslinger. But there's no chemistry between Uma and John (Pulp Fiction was obviously a lucky one-shot--though Tarantino sure knows better how to direct a dance scene than Gary Gray), too much time is spent trying to move multiple plot threads along, and the level of product pimping (hmm, must be time to bust out a new Aerosmith single!) is high. Markie score (stupid points): ??