’Ķa riot, a glorious goofball

Amidst the lukewarm reviews for Be Cool, there are lots of cool things being said about Vince’Ķ
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The misses have less to do with the talents of Vaughn (a riot, a glorious goofball) Entertainment Weekly

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Top dogs are Vaughn, never better at physical comedy than here... Yahoo! News-Reviews-Reuters

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In ’ÄúBe Cool,’Äù the sequel to the 1995 comedy ’ÄúGet Shorty,’Äù Vince Vaughn’Äôs eyes come alive for the first time. Ever since Vaughn appeared in ’ÄúSwingers,’Äù in 1996, he has been a slightly mysterious presence. In that movie, he was furiously self-mocking as Trent Walker, the fast-talking make-out artist who never gets a girl, but there was something unnerving about him: his eyes seemed a little remote, almost as if he were watching himself perform from someplace far away. After ’ÄúSwingers,’Äù he played a variety of cynics, movers, and louses, sometimes seriously, sometimes for laughs. He quickly became the most untrustworthy man in movies since the fish-eyed young Bill Murray, twenty years earlier. Directors drew on his emotional reticence, but I wondered how long he could continue to withhold so much of himself. Was he warding off the intrusive tyranny of the camera? Impossible to say, but, in any case, Vaughn’Äôs not protecting himself anymore. In ’ÄúBe Cool,’Äù he is gloriously animated as Raji, an insecure Los Angeles music-business manager. Rap is where the money is, and Raji, dressed in glowing reds, is so eager to flatter his clients that he can’Äôt stop thumping his chest and jackknifing his body and delivering himself of such locutions as ’ÄúStop hating, start participating. C’Äômon, twinkle, twinkle, baby.’Äù Dancing around a car in Santa Monica, Vaughn takes off into flights of rapturous absurdity. He seems incredibly happy to be playing this hyperanimated fool. The New Yorker

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Vince Vaughn, hereby clinches - again - the title of champion annoying jackass in current American movies. No one plays a loudmouth jerk better than Vince Vaughn. He's priceless here, as a self-styled mack daddy music biz middler who calls himself Andre and whose clothes and palaver are pure ghetto, even though his real name is Ray Lowenthal. Buffalo News

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Only two performances break free of the movie's tightly controlled universe. Vince Vaughn's Raji, resplendent in pimp chic and with the darting eyes and hysterical giggle of the truly insane, is a character born to be reprised. But the film's biggest surprise is none other than The Rock (somebody stop me; I can't believe I'm actually writing this), playing hilariously against type in the role of Raji's gay bodyguard. This guy has a serious future on Broadway. Las Vegas Mercury

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Uma Thurman co-stars and Vince Vaughn stands out in the large ensemble. Courier Post Online

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Travolta and Thurman, leaning primarily on their auras, let the other, younger folks have their fun. And they do. The Rock glows with antic energy as he toys with his macho image while Cedric makes the most of his chance to be sinister for a change. But it's Vaughn who runs amok the most - and in so doing, almost runs away with the movie in his character's polyester pocket. NY Newsday

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That's okay by me because while the story is muddled, there are several scenes dropped in that are laugh-out-loud funny. Vince Vaughn is hilarious’Ķ Rotten Tomatoes

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So what is cool about Be Cool? Vince Vaughn is hilarious as a record executive with gangsta pretensions. The Providence Phoenix

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Vaughn would be twice as funny with half the screen time, though he has moments of inspired silliness. Charlotte Observer

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Among the few delights of "Be Cool"' is Vaughn's trying-to-be-black Raji. MercuryNews.com

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BE COOL. John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn, Harvey Keitel and the Rock in F. Gary Gray's sequel to "Get Shorty" about a leg-breaking thug's adventures in Hollywood. "There's nothing remotely cool about it. But what's hopelessly uncool about it is also what makes it a lot of fun. You're in no danger of finding it, at any point, to be a good movie. But with so many people - especially the Rock and Vince Vaughn - having such a good time in it, it eventually becomes quite contagious. If you exit the theater without at least the glimmer of a smile on your face, you may need a silliness check-up. The best guess is that you're a quart low." (Jeff Simon) Buffalo News

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Vince Vaughn as the white "gansta" record producer named Raji, with a sartorial preference for pimp hats and oversized track-suits, steals the movie. His all-urban-slang-and-no-action poser is hilarious. Chartattack

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The comedic standout was the duo of Vaughn and the Rock. They light up the screen: nearly every piece of their dialogue was gut-bustingly funny. St. Petersburg Times, Xpress

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The Rock and Vince Vaughn basically steal this film with their over the top, take no prisoners performance.

When Vaughn puts on his Vanilla Ice show it's hysterical, the audience I saw this with was laughing out loud every time these two came on screen. EclipseMagazine.com

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Vaughn and the Rock score major points for their willingness to make fools of themselves. The white suburbanite who pretends to be a gangsta rapper has been attempted dozens of times and is seldom funny (Jamie Kennedy in "Malibu's Most Wanted" is an exception), yet after Vaughn's performance, this modern stereotype can be retired with honor. Fat chance, I know, but Vaughn reveals a desperation behind Raji's need to replace his identity and is hilarious for it. Northwest Herald

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Vince Vaughn plays a hilarious music promoter who is brilliant as a wannabe pimp-daddy. The Tufts Daily

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Among those in the cast that particularly shine, Vince Vaughn and The Rock lead the pack. Vaughn is hysterical as a white guy who thinks he's from the 'hood... The Trades

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Vince Vaughn and The Rock should get their own spin-off sequel with their characters -- very funny... Times Standard Online

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Vince Vaughn is endlessly entertaining as a sniveling talent agent who is convinced he is black, complete with pimp jacket and awful street-slang accent. Brock Press

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And some praise from his peers’Ķ

Q: How tough was it to keep a straight face around Vince Vaughn?

CHRISTINA: [Laughs] Very tough. Vince Vaughn, the character he plays, is hilarious. He stays in character on and off the camera! In the movie, he’Äôs yelling at me all the time. In the middle of lunch, all of a sudden, he’Äôs like, ’ÄúLinda! Linda!’Äù And for anyone who doesn’Äôt know he’Äôs in character, they’Äôre looking at him like, ’ÄúYo, what’Äôs up?’Äù The first time he did it to me, I was like ’ÄúDo I stay in character? We’Äôre not at camera!’Äù So I started to get into it because I thought it would help him out. It was good to watch him so maybe later on, when I do a character like that, I will just stay in character and do that and focus on the character. But that guy was hilarious. F. Gary Gray, the director, he couldn’Äôt help himself but laugh so we had to do a couple of takes over and over again. Interview with Christina Milian for Cinema Confidential News

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Benjamin said he had the equivalent of an on-set acting course by simply observing.

"I had all these vets around, and so I'm watching them. I'm quiet, real quiet, and just watching everyone."

"For a scene where (Vince Vaughn's character) gets beaten by Dabu and his crew, Vince has to be beat up and out of breath. So two minutes before we do the scene, he's in the corner actually beating himself up. He's getting into it. He's not punching himself, but he's (breathing), and I'm looking at him and I'm like, `OK, that's how you do it.' You shouldn't have to wait until `action' to get to it because then you have to put it on. If you're in it, you're in it. So I learned to get into character and have your thoughts before it's time to go."

And now that he's going, it's totally "Cool." Interview with Andre Benjamin for Boston Herald.com

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The Rock added that it was great to work with Vaughn on the film, as they knew each other and had been looking for something to do together. "You don't quite know, especially with two crazy characters like this, with Elliott, and he's a bad ass during the day and a gay man at night - not a gay man at night, but in his private time he likes to put on the blue outfit, the cowboy outfit, with the red boots - and Vince Vaughn, who is one of the few actors in Hollywood who is taller than I am - he's all of six five, and looking up at him, he's this Jewish character, dressing like a pimp, walking black, talking black, and so funny. And [director] Gary had given us a lot of leeway in the scenes to improvise and ad lib, and just go for it. We prepared for so long and Gary was great with everything, and there was one particular scene where I finally had enough of him using derogatory terms, calling me names, so I stopped the car, and we started running around the car. I think pretty much all that was ad libbed. And it was great for me, because I just had to sell tin my face. I had no idea what Vince was going to say from 'twinkle twinkle little star to stop hating, you gotta stop participating' - Vince was great." Comingsoon.net

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Meanwhile, Vaughn earns Keitel’Äôs praise for both his preparation and commitment to his role. ’ÄúVince is a wonderful young actor who knows his work; he did a beautiful job on this film.’Äù Harvey Keitel interview, Filmstew.com

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Q: With a cast like this, I could imagine that there were several antics on set...

THE ROCK: It’Äôs funny. I have to give it up for F. Gary Gray, who had his hands full as you can imagine with all these personalities and A-list actors ’Äì as far as off-screen antics, it was more like playing around, especially with me, Vince Vaughn, John Travolta, who’Äôs a very funny guy too. Vince is great. He’Äôs one of those cats who just go on and on and on about anything and it will always be funny.’Äù Interview with The Rock for Cinema Confidential

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John Travolta insists Vince Vaughn is one of the funniest people he's ever met.

"Vince hits my funnybone like no one else," says Travolta, who first teamed up with Vaughn for the tense thriller Domestic Disturbance.

The two are co-stars in Be Cool, which opens next Friday.

"Vince has humour in his soul. He's like Robin Williams in that when you get him started, there's no stopping him."

"He can look at me and I start laughing."

Travolta says Vaughn had him reduced to tears several times during the filming of Domestic Disturbance.

"It was me who couldn't contain myself, but Vince got blamed for our laughing fits. I didn't confess up until the last day of shooting." Edmunton Sun

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And finally, a few words from Vince about preparing for his role as Raji’Ķ

Audiences are certain to be intrigued by Vaughn's nearly continual banter -- talking "more black" than nearly all the African Americans in the film -- or in any recent movie, for that matter. The actor explained he approached the lingo just as he would prepare to deliver any accent or foreign dialect in a film.

"I knew I could mess up a little, since Raji was such a goofball, such an idiot," he said. "Messing up was what he's all about, for God's sake!

"But seriously, I prepared by watching a lot of the old 'Sanford and Son' shows -- plus a bunch of 'Good Times' episodes. The reason I did it like that, I wanted to watch someone who was both black and comedic. After attuning my ear to the kind of delivery of a Redd Foxx or Jimmy Walker, I then listened to contemporary stuff. I was afraid if I only listened to contemporary conversations, I'd only pick up phrases and not immerse myself as a total character into the language." Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Christine at March 5, 2005 1:50 PM