Film Review

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Get Shorty
Directed by Barry Sonnefeld
MGM Home Entertainment 10/95 DVD/VHS Feature Film
R - language, some violence

Get Shorty is a smooth, spunky, and very funny screen adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1990 novel. In the best performance of his career, John Travolta plays Chili Palmer, a cocky Miami loan shark who catches flick fever while in Hollywood on an assignment.

Soon he's involved with a schlock movie producer (Gene Hackman), a beautiful starlet (Rene Russo), a finicky movie star (Danny DeVito), and a drug-dealing investor (Delroy Lindo). While trying to get two movies into production Chili also has to deal with Ray Bones (Dennis Farina), a Miami mobster who is on his case.

Get Shorty boasts the snappiest dialogue of any 1995 screenplay and is right on target with its entertaining portrait of fast-talking hustlers. Barry Sonnenfeld's superb direction is a wonder to behold. Kudos to all involved with Get Shorty, a clever film which points out how, with their role-playing and double-dealing, the criminal underworld and the Hollywood star scene are really very similar.

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by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat