There's a certain type of movie, or a certain type of story that I most often see in movies, that uses misunderstanding, obscurity, happenstance and misdirection to yield hilarious results. It's the "Comedy of Errors" type of story. I like the genre, probably in part because I'm pretty rotten at thinking of stories that work like that - my brain doesn't naturally put things together that way. it's not the drop-dead funniest, but my favorite example of a movie like this is probably Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Last night I found another example of the type and thought it was really good: Be Cool. It's a little less accidental and a little more manipulative than most, and a little less absurdist and a little more clever, but it's really good. And how could it not have been? I mean, look at that cast: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Cedric the Entertainer, Vince Vaughn, Harvey Keitel, Christina Milian, Andre 3000, Robert Pastorelli and the Rock, with cameo appearances by Danny Devito, James Woods, Steven Tyler and (of course) Seth Green.
I mention The Rock up there because, aside from the fact that he was one of the stars, he proved in this movie that he can act. He proved that he can act like a clueless gay Samoan, but he proved that he can act nonetheless.
So, it was a lot of fun. It was worth the price of admission and, while I'm not jumping up and down to pay that price a second time, I'll certainly see Be Cool again at some point. Maybe I'll buy the DVD.