Get Shorty (1995)

Get Shorty (1995): Dir: Barry Sonnenfeld / Cast: John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Danny De Vito, Delroy Lindo: Interesting film with an awkward title that leaves much to be desired. It stars John Travolta as Chilli Palmer who arrives in Hollywood to collect a debt from filmmaker Gene Hackman. He takes interest in a script and convinces Danny De Vito to star. Others also seek the script and will resort to any means to obtain it. Interesting and detailed plot although the conclusion is questionable. Directed with insight by Barry Sonnenfeld with great insight into Hollywood backlash. Winning performance by Travolta who switches gears when applying his skills within the realms of Hollywood. Hilarious turn by Hackman as a producer owing much and may have a way out through Palmer. Unfortunately the methods applied are questionable. De Vito is funny as the hottest actor in Hollywood who is taught to act by Palmer in a very funny sequence. Rene Russo is effective casting as Hackman's mistress. The issue is that the role is somewhat a con yet she is actually the bait to Palmer's charm. Delroy Lindo technically plays the film's villain as he forces his demands in the business outskirts. Well made film that has its flaws yet counters them with witty dialogue and an engaging theme. It regards Hollywood and the dark side of its competing nature. Score: 7 / 10

Get Shorty has a pretty sweet set-up. A loanshark mobster named Chili Palmer (John Travolta) has to travel from Miami to Los Angeles in order to collect a debt for his new boss. There he finds out that the movie business doesn't really differ all that much from what he has done successfully all his life, and thus he decides to produce a movie while he's at it. Very nice idea. Just exaggerated enough that no one will take it too seriously and the jokes practically write themselves.Which makes it all the more baffling that I didn't really laugh while watching the film. I enjoyed its plot a lot, but its humour didn't connect with me at all. I enjoyed the suaveness of John Travolta and all his serious scenes a lot more than I enjoyed any of the jokes the script had him say every once in a while. And that's basically the movie in a nutshell. It has a really good cast of actors, all of them charismatic and able to play their characters to perfection, but the script doesn't give them all that much to work with, meaning that they're not all that funny. Perhaps this would have worked better as a drama film with a humorous undertone. More drama than comedy, whereas in this case it's the other way around.Then again, perhaps it's just me. I've heard a lot of people say that this is a really funny film, so it might just be that it's not my cup of tea. Wouldn't be the first time when it comes to comedies. And, as stated, the film works very well as a story about a mobster that decides to do Hollywood. The characters are interesting, the various plot twists are just convoluted enough and the plot has a good structure.All in all I have to rate the film as just slightly below average because for me it doesn't work as a comedy. Still, definitely worth a watch if you're more omnivorous when it comes to comedies, because even if the humour doesn't hit you, at least you'll get a pretty decent mobster film out of it.

Arguably one of the funniest movies about the machinations of movie-making, courtesy of the late Elmore Leonard. John Travolta is laid-back cool as Chili Palmer and Dennis Farini as Ray "Bones" is near to bursting with pent-up resentment; but theirs aren't the only noteworthy performances in the film: Gene Hackman as schlockmeister Harry Zimm, a movie producer of very few scruples, and Delroy Lindo as a loan-sharking dealer in narcotics who's dying to produce a movie in Hollywoodland, deliver the goods as well. Sonnenfeld's direction couldn't be improved upon (at least, not in my opinion). To hear these characters- especially the career criminals, like Travolta and Lindo- talk at length about movies is worth the price of admission (and I thought so back when I saw this one when it was first released). Hackman offers this tidbit to Travolta: "I once asked this literary agent what kind of writing paid the best. He said, 'Ransom notes.'" Later, having sat through a showing of TOUCH OF EVIL, Travolta tells Rene Russo: "Sometimes you do your best work when you got a gun to your head."

To me, this was still another take off on Damon Runyan. The latter always was able to bring in two diverse groups in his stories. This yarn seems to follow that pattern with mobster Chili Palmer, a heavy smoking John Travolta, going to Hollywood and seeing for himself mob-like activities in tinsel town as well.Travolta is very good in the part. What became of the David Palmer character in the film. He had stolen $300,000 from the airline who had paid his family, not realizing that he had taken himself off the plane before it crashed.Dennis Farina, an ex-policeman in real life, is terrific as one of the mobsters and Gene Hackman is a riot in a different type of performance for him as a producer who is in the thick of things as well.I wish that someone could explain to me the role of Danny De Vito here. As a two-time Oscar winner, De Vito's role should have been expanded here. This is also true for Rene Russo.