the worst film of 2005

If I may quote Roger Ebert in his review of NORTH..."I HATE, HATE, HATE THIS MOVIE!!!" This is, without a doubt, the worst film of 2005.

BE COOL is a complete mess from start to finish.
The screenplay is awful and poorly written. The direction is sloppy and amateurish, although F. Gary Gray is a competent director usually. The cast is uniformally wasted and their performances are mostly all bad. Travolta looks bored to tears and delivers his lines like he has a gun to his head forcing him to read them. Thurman, a very good actress, is completely awful. She plays it like a first time acting student. Her reaction shots and line deliveries are pathetic and really bad. The Rock's character could have been comedy gold but instead it is silly and dumb. Cedric the Entertainer is given a thankless, wanna-be-a-character-in-a-Tarantino film, role that is badly written and goes nowhere. James Woods's cameo is stupid and he is wasted. Harvey Keitel looks as if he regrets signing on for the film. Steven Tyler's cameo is just plain stupid. Andre 3000 has a good role but they overdo it everytime he is on screen. Finally I come to the great Vince Vaughn. He was awful. His worst role ever. He was annoying(I know he was supposed to be, but he was also supposed to be funny while he was annoying and he was not!), badly written, and poorly acted.

The direction, by Gray, was slapdash and all over the place. The tone was trying to be like GET SHORTY but it fell way short and felt like some low-rent rip-off. The lighting made the film look cheap and false. There was no real flow to the film as the scenes all seemed to run together and jump all over the place. The film's attempt to "recapture the magic" of the Travolta/Thurman dance in PULP FICTION fell with a thud. The scene was tired, phony, and extremely bad. The concert sequence with Aerosmith and Christina Milian was very phony and very badly done. The whole scene felt and looked wrong.

Ad to these problems some of the worst dialogue written lately and you have a mammoth misfire of a film that tried to capture the spirit of the first film and ad more comedy and a wider cast.

BE COOL is a truly awful film and I am stunned that the caliber of actors that were in it, stayed on to make it. I can just imagine the premiere screening and all of these great performers writhing in their seats, amazed and embarrassed by the debacle that is oozing on the screen.

"Look me in the eyes"...this movie stinks!
filmmakeracf