(2005) "What are you going to tell them?" "No more than I have to, if that."

Danny DeVito (also producer) makes brief appearances as movie star Martin Weir, getting a big kiss from Anna Nicole Smith as herself. Rocker Steven Tyler ("I'm not one of these singers who shows up in movies") and his band Aerosmith (for whom long before Edie had been their touring laundress) perform in concert with Linda Moon, launching her career. In a nod to his Saturday Night Fever days, Travolta dances with Thurman to the Black Eyed Peas.

"Sequels," says Chili. "Huh?" says Tommy Athens (James Woods). "It's the only time I gave in in my life," says Chili. "But sometimes you gotta do it the studio's way." "What are you talking about?" says Tommy. "Get Lost?" "Yeah." "I thought the first one was pretty good," says Tommy. "Get Leo?" answers Chili.

Ten years after Get Shorty, this reprise (like a song with much the same tune and lead singer but different lyrics and band members) from director F. Gary Gray has John Travolta resuming his role as Chili Palmer; it's an enhanced, hipper, funnier entertainment.

"Do you know that unless you're willing to use the R rating, you can only say the F-word once?" Chili explains to Tommy. "You know what I say? Fuck that."

Ten minutes or so into this PG-13 flick, after sitting outside a cafe listening to his friend Tommy, part owner of NTL (Nothing to Lose) Records, pitch an idea for a musical about himself as a record mogul, Chili gets up to go to the men's room. Before Chili returns, a big Russian-mafia thug with a black eye and unstable toupee blasts away, finally hitting Tommy fatally in the chest. Chili has just told Tommy he wants to get out of the movie business and go back to being a shylock where he can be "honest about being dishonest."

When Chili picks up a rental car, an Intrepid, he says: "I asked for a Cadillac." He's told it's the Cadillac of electric hybrids.

He meets a young singer/songwriter, Linda Moon (Christina Milian), at a club where she wants out of her five-year contract - as the lead singer of the Chicks, a trio of females - with Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel) and his subaltern producer, Roger "Raji" Lowenthal (Vince Vaughn), putting on a hilarious black-pimp act. Raji's gay bodyguard Elliot Wilhelm (The Rock) gets turned when Chili offers to arrange an audition for the Samoan aspiring to be an actor/singer/dancer.

Afterward Chili goes to see Edie Athens (Ulma Thurman), Tommy's widow, offering to become her partner at NTL. Chili introduces Edie to Linda who impresses everyone by singing her composition "Believer" (actually written by will.i.am, sounding like a Paul Williams ballad from the '70s).

Upset with Chili's interference, Nick hires Joe "Loop" Lupino as a hit man. Meanwhile, in a scene satirizing The Sopranos, Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer), producer of the hiphop group Dub MDs, picks up his newspaper in front of his mansion in the suburbs just as his gangstas drive up with a program director in the back of a van to face the music for failing to play the music. Later Sin and his nine demand $300 Gs, plus "the vig," from Edie and Chili as payment for Tommy's debt; Chili says: "Be cool."

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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