After Travolta made his big comeback with Pulp Fiction, he was able to get better leading roles. These featured his engaging, confident charm, which are best put to use in comedies. Travolta doesn't get to dance in Get Shorty. Otherwise, the film was an ideal vehicle for him, with its Elmore Leonard derived story and script, and a proliferation of big name actors in supporting roles.
Chili Palmer (Travolta) is a Miami loan shark with a rivalry with brutal mobster Barboni (Dennis Farina). While pursuing welcher Leo (David Paymer), Palmer learns of an even bigger loan stiff: 'B' film producer Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman). Palmer, a film addict, decides to quit his rackets and make films with Zimm.
Much of the humor in Get Shorty comes at the expense of Hollywood. Danny DeVito as Weir is a comic stereotype of a self-obsessed actor, almost unaware that the universe exists apart from his wants and needs. The best send-up of Weir is an imposing billboard featuring his starring mug in the fictional film Napoleon, with Weir affecting a pompously somber pose. But the vanity of actors also makes for easy and obvious targets, and the short jokes get tiresome after a while. Does being short make you a lesser person? You'd be surprised how many people seem to believe so.
Gene Hackman has a very good role as schlocky horror film producer Harry Zimm. His star actress (and sometime lover) Karen Flores realizes that the films are hopelessly bad, and has become too jaded to believe that future roles will be otherwise. But Zimm is an eternal optimist, whose ambitions are beyond his reach until he meets a player (Palmer) who can accomplish them for him.
The Hollywood jokes continue, with crime lords Palmer and Catlett dreaming of becoming big shot producers. Partly because Palmer has apparently memorized the script of every American film ever made, but mostly because it's his movie, he succeeds tremendously. The bad guys are conquered, and the good guys are happily under his thumb as the film ends.
One of the film's running gags is the line, "Look at me!" Apparently one tough guy's method for asserting control over another, it is trotted out so often that one can hardly blame mobster Barboni (Dennis Farina) for getting violently angry upon hearing it. He is the most unsavory of the film's tough guys, but his perpetual anger and sarcasm is still oddly appealing.
Bette Midler, Penny Marshall, and Harvey Keitel have late film cameos. Many of the songs on the soundtrack are from 1960s funky jazz instrumentalists Booker T & The MGs. DeVito also is listed as one of the film's producers. Screenwriter Scott Frank would later adapt another Elmore Leonard book into a movie, Out of Sight (1998). The screen best adaptation of Leonard is Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997). Travolta's best film is Pulp Fiction. Gene Hackman's best film is Unforgiven.
Miguel Sandoval has a cameo as a Columbian drug dealer. He had played a nearly identical character in the Harrison Ford formula thriller Clear and Present Danger from the year before.
John Travolta won a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his role in Get Shorty. The film was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Screenplay. However, it was snubbed by the Academy Awards, and did not receive any nominations. (66/100)
Golden Globe winner* John Travolta leads an all-star cast in the hysterical comedy that Time calls smart, shrewdly crafted [and] hilarious! Loan shark...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.