Be Cool (1999)

I am fairly new to Elmore Leonard’s crime fiction, but from this book, I understand the attraction. Be Cool is a strange and quirky story, fun and fast paced, and set in the southern California world of movie producers and music moguls. The story is peopled by unique characters – Chili Palmer (of “Get Shorty” fame), not to mention a giant, gay Samoan bodyguard whose ambition is to break into movies, but who has a penchant for throwing people out of windows of high-rise buildings. While the plot is not entirely unpredictable, it takes the reader on an enjoyable ride. Clearly Elmore Leonard’s brand of popular fiction will not satisfy everyone, but I found this work sufficiently amusing to try others. ( )

Chili Palmer is once again on the lookout for an idea to turn into a film project. Having one success and a failure for the follow-up he needs another hit. Unfortunately, the hit is of a different kind as his lunch date gets gunned down right in front of his eyes. The meeting was to discuss a film being made of the indie record producer's life story. Chili knew Tommy Athens from back in the day and Tommy thought Chili would have a greater understanding of where he was coming from so set up the lunch date to discuss the idea.

After the shooting Chili decides the music business might provide him with inspiration for his film after all and so talks his way into being manager of a band and sets about getting them their big break. Once again it's the characters and dialogue that drive the story along with the plot just along for the ride. With pretty much a whole new cast list for this sequel you don't really need to have read Get Shorty to appreciate this one though you do understand Chili more if you do.

This is a fun, fast-paced, lightweight read and while nothing special still provides entertainment enough. ( )

Man was this lame. I saw the movie was on, decided to tape it and then figured I would read the book first. I can't understand why Elmore Leonard is so popular. His style is choppy, annoying and just plain bad in parts. The movie wasn't much better. ( )

The opening scene, where Chili Palmer is having lunch with a man who ends up getting shot by a hitman, is pretty good. But don't expect the story to be about that crime. There are vague murmurings about possible connections with the Russian mafia but by and large the scene is nothing more than a hook to get you into the story, then forgotten about soon after. This book is a lot like Get Shorty except that it's about a singer instead of a laundromat owner. The whole "let's describe what's really happening as if we're making a movie" thing comes back full force, and it gets a little old. There's even the formerly evil thug that has a change of heart and saves the day, just like in the last one. My suggestion would be to read either Get Shorty or Be Cool, but not both. The story just isn't good enough to be read twice in a row. ( )

Here there be spoilers.

I guess my idea of fast-paced and snappy dialogue is different from other people’s because this didn’t snap, crackle or pop for me. It was mildly entertaining, but not riveting or suspenseful.

At the beginning, Chili is having lunch w/some record exec guy that he knows. Just how well is debatable. The guy is shot to death while Chili is away from the table. Chili saw the guy who did it as he returns to the table. It’s a Russian mob guy. It seems the now deceased record exec refused to pay protection money, so he bought it.

Now Chili has an idea for a movie and he wants to open with this scene. He finds the ‘leggy blonde’ in a dating service and she wants to be a singer. The problem is she’s with this group and they have a sleazy manager. Chili knows the ‘partner’ of this manager and he proceeds to get this girl back together with her old band so they can begin recording a CD and shopping a deal.

Some unknown Russian is then killed in Chili’s house. The Russian was there to kill Chili when another guy shows up also to kill Chili. The second guy pops the first guy and reports back to the sleazy manager that everything is taken care of. Now Chili has to find out how many people exactly want to kill him and try to figure out how to stay alive. He ends up turning some hard-core rappers onto the Russians by telling them that they cheated the original record exec out of money that was actually their royalty payments. A bloodbath ensues.

In the end, the sleazy manager gets thrown off a building by his bodyguard (because the sleazy manager tried to erase messages from Chili about the bodyguard’s screen test) and the Russians are all dead. The girl and the band begin to make it and decide not to sign with Chili’s record company because he changed their music in the studio and didn’t tell her about it until some DJ played it for her live on the air.