Customer Reviews

Be Cool

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Be Cool is Elmore Leonard's sequel to Get Shorty, and is, as are all of Leonard's books, entertaining and easy to read.

Chili Palmer has made one blockbuster and one bomb. He's looking for a new movie idea when a former mob friend-turned music executive gets shot as the two are eating lunch in Hollywood. The ensuing action takes Chili into the music industry and all the drama, ego, and jealousy that exists within, all in search of a new script. Palmer takes on the management of an up-and-coming singer, upsetting her former manager, who spends most of the book trying to figure out how to kill Chili. Along the way, Chili has to deal with gangsta rappers, russian mobsters, a mafia hit man, a gay samoan bodyguard, and a budding diva or two.

This book was not as good as Get Shorty, but is still a lot of fun to read. Leonard sticks to his formula here, shady good guys and nasty bad guys, all of whom are odd and entertaining characters. Leonard has a gift for writing interesting people and great dialogue, and this book is full of both.

This is a sequel in which Chilli Palmer goes into the music business. Chilli, as his name suggests, is wonderfully cool. He is tough, but gets his way by outsmarting and confusing his adversaries. As is usual in an Elmore Leonard, most of the characters are fun, even the evil ones. I loved the first half of the book (until about the baseball bat murder) which is done with a light touch. By the end, however, the book became ALMOST tiresome. I am not sure what the problem is. Perhaps it is that Palmer's ultimate love interest is a totally uninspired character, and Palmer, himself, seems to be going through the motions, even while the plot twists continue unabated.

This is one of the best L.A. books I've ever read. It's fairly recent and takes place in locations that L.A. people actually go (Swingers, Canter's Deli, Ralph's). The plot is a bit reminscent of Get Shorty, but who cares. The book is very entertaining.

Be cool fallows our favorite Hollywood loan-shark as he continues with his hollywood career. Be Cool is a really faced paced and captivating. It's definetely something to read if you like get shorty.

This book is not the standard E. Leonard novel, relative to its level of violence (not much, yea!!). It is full of humor and as usual he paints a great literary picture. I would love to see what a screen writer could do with this Leonard book but the right character actors are required. Without the right actors I'd still watch just for the thrill of humanizing Chil and Elliot, but that would be a video rental. The title is exactly the theme and with a name like Chili, the main character that is "cool" and hot at the same time. Really good read.

Kevin T. - RVHS
The Miami loan shark Chilli Palmer goes to Hollywood and gets into the movie business making two movies. The first is a big box office hit and the second a big flop. He needs another smash hit and this book is about how he develops scripting his next movie. He wants to turn his life into a movie and after a lunch with the music business bigwig, Tommy, someone executes the big shot. Chilli is a murder suspect. From here in the scripting unfolds as Chilli sets up real life encounters with real people. He manipulates a beautiful singer, shady music professionals, and villains. He wonders (and finds out) if these real-life events will turn into his next screen hit.
BE COOL is cool. The ripping dialog really tells the story and you definitely get to know the characters from their speech. You can just imagine John Travolta being in this movie if and when it really hits the big screens. I like this book because you just have to keep reading - you can't put it down. I'm into movie making and scripting and I enjoyed the idea that Chilli was stymied and turned to his life as a basis for his next script. Authors write best about what they know and understand. What better material is there for a writer than what experiences the writer has had? Well, in this case, what better experiences than what the writer will be having? This is an example of event based story telling with exciting characters and wild happenings. You'll be entertained.

The Miami loan shark Chilli Palmer goes to Hollywood and gets into the movie business
making two movies. The first is a big box office hit and the second a big flop. He needs
another smash hit and this book is about how he develops scripting his next movie. He
wants to turn his life into a movie and after a lunch with the music business bigwig,
Tommy, someone executes the big shot. Chilli is a murder suspect. From here in the
scripting unfolds as Chilli sets up real life encounters with real people. He manipulates a
beautiful singer, shady music professionals, and villains. He wonders (and finds out) if
these real-life events will turn into his next screen hit.
BE COOL is cool. The ripping dialog really tells the story and you definitely get to know
the characters from their speech. You can just imagine John Travolta being in this movie
if and when it really hits the big screens. I like this book because you just have to keep
reading - you can't put it down. I'm into movie making and scripting and I enjoyed the idea
that Chilli was stymied and turned to his life as a basis for his next script. Authors write
best about what they know and understand. What better material is there for a writer than
what experiences the writer has had? Well, in this case, what better experiences than what
the writer will be having? This is an example of event based story telling with exciting
characters and wild happenings. You'll be entertained.

Be Cool is a masterpiece. In a way it's a sequel to Elmore Leonard's GET SHORTY, which I never read, but that's mainly because SHORTY's seedy movie producer, Chili Palmer, is back (For those of you who saw the movie, Chili is the Travolta character).

Be Cool has a plot which I don't think I can explain right now. Not because it's complicated, but because it's 10:15 at night right now. What I can tell you is that Chili is having lunch with a record producer and gets up to go to the bathroom. When he comes back, he witnesses the producer getting shot down. He begins to start working on the treatment to a movie involving this incident as well as the life of Linda Moon, a singer who's band Odessa is a perfect example of today's struggling musicians.

As Chili works on his movie, a group of people want him dead for various reasons. Raji, the Kangol-wearing pimp who has Linda under contract, wants him dead because he convinced Linda to quit the band International Chicks, a band which did cover songs which Raji profitted off. Then the Russian mob wants him dead because he knows incriminating facts about the killer of the record producer.

It's a lot of fun and you won't be able to put it down. This is a very small price to pay for such a fantastic read.

Elmore Leonard makes me turn pages faster than anything I've read. I am a fan of Hunter Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, Charles Bukowski, WS Burroughs so Leonard lacks one thing FOR ME: substance. His books are PURE entertainment. And there is nothing wrong with that. I read his books in two or three nights. I DEVOUR them. Characters are great, story is unique and thrilling, and dialogue is crisp, like no other ever! He is the king of the crime novel. But don't look for any theme or motif really,because there isn't one. EL never pretended to have this though, he is just a great writer. Just light reading for me and extremely entertaining.

I was amazed to see that Be Cool's average rating is 3 stars. I think it is one of Leonard's funniest, most insightful, and best.