Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Chili Palmer is a Miami mobster who gets sent to L.A. to collect a bad debt from Harry Zimm, a Hollywood producer who specializes in cheesy horror films. When Chili meets Harry's leading lady, the romantic sparks fly. After pitching his own life story as a movie idea, Chili learns that being a mobster and being a Hollywood producer really aren't all that different.
Get Shorty is a sharp, well-cast crime comedy elevated primarily by its performances — John Travolta's coolly charismatic Chili Palmer anchors an ensemble that includes Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, and Dennis Farina all firing on all cylinders. The Elmore Leonard source material gives the film a wry, self-aware wit and a clever parallel between mob life and Hollywood deal-making, which feels moderately fresh. The plot is entertaining but occasionally tangled in its own double-crosses without fully paying them off. Cinematography is functional and period-competent without being distinctive. The ending resolves things neatly but without a particularly memorable punch. Solid mid-90s crime comedy with real star power.