Barry Sonnenfeld directed Get Shorty, and, like several Sonnenfeld films, it's preoccupied with its own cleverness and light cynical attitude. There's cynicism in the new sequel, Be Cool, too, but in F. Gary Gray's hands it's less sarcastic, more direct, probably because there's less to say this time. The continuing adventures of Chili Palmer (John Travolta) thus move away from satire and more toward farce.

Get Shorty made a rather sly observation that the movie industry is not unlike the mobster industry. The joke was about how Chili, a Miami shylock and, as it happens, a movie enthusiast, could easily make the transition to Hollywood business because his cool gangster attitude came in so handy. In Be Cool, Chili moves to the music industry. This time, a comparison to the criminal landscape isn't necessary -- the music world is a gangster world, where execs regularly threaten one another and issue hits (the mob kind, not the music kind) without a second thought.

Gray makes Be Cool quite aware of itself as a parody -- its array of characters are convinced of their own world, but the humor is upplayed a little broader than it was in Sonnenfeld's film. Considering how lightly it takes itself, this can be seen as a step in the right direction; further attempts at clever commentary might've started feeling disingenuous. Relying more on caricature and less on character subtlety isn't always encouraging -- the story becomes less believable as a result -- but it's executed with some good-natured enthusiasm here, and the movie is more than willing to ride with that.

Gray's movie does seem to carry its own commentary, though, and it's less about the industry than it is about the popular "hip" image of African-Americans. Be Cool makes fun of what black coolness has become, but at the same time appears curiously defensive about it. The film simultaneously deflates and promotes the image -- scenes with Cedric the Entertainer and André Benjamin (aka Outkast's André 3000) make light of how much an act the whole thing can be, while the characters played by Vince Vaughn and Harvey Keitel are on display almost as an excuse for territorial defense, as if to say to non-blacks, "Don't try it unless you carry respect for it." In a comic highlight, Cedric drives that point home in a speech that might as well be the thesis of the movie.

So it's interesting to note where this leaves Travolta's Chili. As a living representation of the white coolness, particularly from the past, he's here almost to serve merely as a counterpoint to Vaughn's hip-hop wannabe. Chili holds his own against the black "gangstas" because he has own brand of cool; when he and Uma Thurman dance in their own style to the urban sound of The Black-Eyed Peas, it works not only as an homage to their scene in Pulp Fiction but also as a statement of how coolness works when it's original.

Be Cool presents inherently tricky material -- it's a sequel that utilizes stereotypes as much as it comments on them, and it features a crowd of characters/actors each trying to give his or her own appearance an exclamation point. Somehow, it comes together well enough to be quite entertaining. It references Get Shorty numerous times through scenario re-enactments, and the actors pull off their parts with a sort of gleeful commitment -- Vaughn actually makes what should be an embarrassing part humorously believable, and the same could be said for The Rock and his role. Be Cool is a movie that really shouldn't work, but it's smarter than it looks, handles itself assuredly, and does manage to be funny.

(Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and rated "PG-13" for violence, sensuality and language including sexual references.)

Review also posted on www.windowtothemovies.com.