I had to look away during the dance scene. For most of "Be Cool," I had been able to watch, and it was pleasant enough, despite the movie's obvious need to lean on its predecessors for story and style. But I couldn't watch the dance scene.

As soon as Uma Thurman's character asked John Travolta's Chili Palmer if he danced, I knew what was coming. The commercials had prepared me for the moment. But for some reason, I kept watching the screen. Until, that is, Thurman and Travolta launched into what was supposed to be a charming, funny and sexy dance sequence. Then I had to look away.

Why? Because the scene was such a blatant regurgitation of their famous dance scene in 1994's "Pulp Fiction," it looked as if director F. Gary Gray had cut up the original scene from Quentin Tarantino's film, eaten it and vomited it back up 11 years later.

Instead of being wowed by Travolta and Thurman's chemistry, I was nauseated by the chunks of unoriginality and forced cool that had been spewed across the screen.

Everything that was wrong with that scene — and the movie as a whole — can be summed up by the music playing in the background. Where Travolta and Thurman boogied down to Chuck Berry in "Pulp Fiction," they were bumping to the tunes of the Black Eyed Peas in "Be Cool" and they are definitely not an upgrade over Berry. The final product might be mildly entertaining, but it can't even compare to the source materials it so badly ripped off.

"Be Cool" is a sequel to 1995's "Get Shorty," in which Travolta played a gangster, Chili Palmer, whose adventures in Hollywood made for a darkly entertaining crime comedy saturated with the very cool the sequel can't get.

In "Be Cool," Chili decides to leave Hollywood for the music business after his record-producing friend is gunned down during a mob-hit. He finds himself swiftly and with little explanation thrust into a world populated with a lot of characters and a story that goes nowhere.

That the best performances came from non-actors says something: The Rock and Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000 of OutKast) are good as a gay Samoan bodyguard and a wannabe gangsta rapper respectively. Harvey Keitel is OK as a tough-guy record promoter, and Vince Vaughn does what he can as a white record producer who tries to act black (I won't spoil anything, but I will say that he did way more work than the material deserves if he really put on a fire suit for the film's climactic scene).

Travolta was especially disappointing. On what seems like his 13th comeback, Travolta doesn't seem to appreciate the gift he was given with "Pulp Fiction" and "Get Shorty." He may reach legendary status someday, but his performance in "Be Cool" suggests that he should've been forced to stop making movies after "Battlefield Earth."

Among the movie's many problems, it was too light compared to "Get Shorty." While that film was given an R rating, "Cool" weighed in at a measly PG-13, and lost a lot of the dark comedic edge that made its predecessor so good. There was meanness in "Be Cool" to be sure, but no edge.

But its main weakness was its lack of original substance, as well as the quality of the stuff it tried to ape. It just made me want to see "Get Shorty" or "Pulp Fiction" again.

Until that dance scene, then it makes me want to grab for an airsick bag.

Grade: C

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 10 2005.