Sometimes all you have left to play is attitude. With a lot more than attitude to play, this film starts with attitude, stirs in some laughs and then adds quite a lot of good actors. Based on the novel by Elmore Leonard, Get Shorty is a delightful, well written, smart film with loads of plots twists. The pace is deliberate and the character studies are fun and well thought out. The character study for John Travolta comes one year after his comeback role in Pulp Fiction with Quintin Tarentino.
The main character is Chili Palmer (John Travolta) who works as as loan shark and part of a group of mobsters out in Miami. Chili has become tired of his mob life and when a job comes to him that enables him to perhaps go to L.A. and try another line of work, he seizes the chance. There Chili meets up with B-movie mogul, Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman) who owes quite a considerable debt.. Zimm agrees to help Chili get a project off the ground with the help of his girlfriend, Karen (Rene Russo) and they suggest casting academy award nominee Martin Weir (Danny DeVito), while Chili also tries to get his immediate job finished.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld provides a film that takes the idea of loving movies and its tongue-in-cheek gangster characters in stride as if that idea is simply a starting off point. He doesn't rely on conventional clichés of the criminal underworld and tells this search for a new career in a refreshing new light. Even when the characters are not the most likable they are still very entertaining. The added bonus that Chili is such a movie fan makes him doubly likable in the film.
This film is a totally character driven film and everything in the film is for the characters. The combination of John Travolta (won Golden Globe, Best Actor), Barry Sonnenfeld and Elmore Leonard's words are a wonderful ebb and flow of comedy and drama. There are some terrific L.A. spots and locations that are also highlighted. The location which is also my favorite movie mogul office of all time is Harry Zimm's office.
The main character is Chili Palmer (John Travolta) who works as as loan shark and part of a group of mobsters out in Miami. Chili has become tired of his mob life and when a job comes to him that enables him to perhaps go to L.A. and try another line of work, he seizes the chance. There Chili meets up with B-movie mogul, Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman) who owes quite a considerable debt.. Zimm agrees to help Chili get a project off the ground with the help of his girlfriend, Karen (Rene Russo) and they suggest casting academy award nominee Martin Weir (Danny DeVito), while Chili also tries to get his immediate job finished.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld provides a film that takes the idea of loving movies and its tongue-in-cheek gangster characters in stride as if that idea is simply a starting off point. He doesn't rely on conventional clichés of the criminal underworld and tells this search for a new career in a refreshing new light. Even when the characters are not the most likable they are still very entertaining. The added bonus that Chili is such a movie fan makes him doubly likable in the film.
This film is a totally character driven film and everything in the film is for the characters. The combination of John Travolta (won Golden Globe, Best Actor), Barry Sonnenfeld and Elmore Leonard's words are a wonderful ebb and flow of comedy and drama. There are some terrific L.A. spots and locations that are also highlighted. The location which is also my favorite movie mogul office of all time is Harry Zimm's office.