Watch Get Shorty For Free

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

You know what, I really love Elmore Leonard, and a part of me feels that nearly any movie made from his works is going to come out as fresh, original, and worth watching.This is the rare exception.Here they took a classic Elmore Leonard plot and made it too Hollywood for its own good. And then they tried a bit hard to make it too much like a Pulp Fiction film, but with less bleak comedy and more slapstick comedy.You still have Leonard's unique originality...but the story has been raped and what's left is trash.

Chili Palmer (John Travolta) a debt collector travels to L.A. to collect a debt, only to get involved in the film industry.I had missed this film when it came out and it has gone on to be an iconic "B" film crime comedy. The humor was crisp and well time. Travolta was great in the role and had a his pre-botox face on the screen most of time. A feel-good dark comedy and Golden Globe winner for Travolta.Guide: F-words. No sex or nudity.

I read the Elmore Leonard novel "Get Shorty" about a year ago and recall that keeping track of the players as the story went on tended to be a bit difficult. The movie, which seemed to follow the book pretty closely, made the character identification a bit easier since most of the main ones were handled by a well known actor or actress. Still, it's easy to get confused once the action gets going because people move in and out of scenes fairly quickly, and some that you expect to have a major role wind up being ancillary characters.Like Leo Devoe (David Paymer) for instance. Since it was his three hundred thousand dollar swindle that opened the story, you would think he'd be the main focus, but he really wasn't on screen that much, while his bundle wound up trading hands more than once. There's also a neat red herring thrown into the picture when Bear's (James Gandolfini) little daughter picked up Yayo's (Jacob Vargas) discarded envelope from the top of the trash bin at the airport. If you were concentrating on that minor development expecting it to mean something, you'd have been wrong. Nothing ever came of that situation.Which is to say, you better be prepared to pay attention to this flick or you could wind up in left field pretty quickly. I thought Travolta did a nice job as the mob strong arm Chili Palmer, attempting to trade up to the movie business. Always thinking ahead, that was a pretty slick move with the C-17 locker to divert the FBI's attention away from him. It turns out he really was a lot smarter than Barboni (Dennis Farina); gee, Bones should have saw the pinch coming ahead of time but I guess greed does that to a wise guy.Anyway, this was a creative caper flick coming from the mind of Elmore Leonard, better known for his Western stories and novels, so this excursion into gangland was a nifty diversion. Since I picked this flick up at my local library, what I think I'll do now is put in a request for Karen Flores' (Russo) two starring roles - 'I Married a Ghoul' and 'The Atomic Mummy'.Say, did anybody wind up getting the money?

The guy who wrote GET SHORTY "gets" Elmore Leonard's sense of humor and style, and that's one of the reasons I love this movie. That high concept of making a mob guy seem normal in the crooked movie industry. And the cast on this bad boy is just incredible. Travolta is cool as ice, Russo is damn sexy, Hackman, Farina and Devito all play great assholes, and it's rounded out by plenty of familiar faces (Delroy Lindo, David Paymer, Martin Ferrero, Uncle Rico from NAPOLEON DYNAMITE). And on top of that, the dialog is hilarious. It's a one-liner factory:"They say the f**king smog is the f**king reason you have such beautiful f**king sunsets""Who the f**k is Momo? Where do you people get these names?""Nice necklace, Doris""Well what is that, a Wop 9? F**kin' Fiat of guns, always jammin' up on you at the wrong time""It's the Cadillac of minivans""Rough business, this movie business. I'm gonna have to go back to loan-sharking just to take a rest"Just a very slick and highly watchable flick, and one of the great Hollywood satires. A high point of the '90s, and Travolta at his most likable.8/10