Review of Get Shorty (1995) by Dawdlingpoet — 25 Nov 2021

I thought that this was quite a slick movie, one that fans of the genre should enjoy quite considerably. John Travolta is a good choice to play the main character of Chili, showing the same bravado and charm as that seen in Pulp Fiction, released only a few years before this movie (the movie dates from 1995). The cast is quite good with other a-list (or thereabouts) actors including Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito and James Gandolfini.

The comedy is of course quite dark and subtle at times but I thought that it seemed to be quite a well written story, which had a pretty good twist towards the end. There are alot of nicknames to get used to of course, with the main character Chili Palmer and then there are characters such as Bones, Bo and Bear (I guess the writer was keen on the letter B(?!).

The story seemed a little confusing to me (and im seriously no expert in gangster/mob based movies or shows at all) at the start, as the viewer is given a rather quick and somewhat rushed explanation of whats going on, so as to set the scene, although more is revealed as the movie continues but it did seem confusing to me to start with, however it was worth sticking with I thought and I liked how it mixed the movie business with the mob business, with, as I say, an interesting ending.

There is, of course, a pretty liberal amount of strong language and some violence present, given the type of movie this is, the 15 rating is well deserved I feel, so be aware of that incase any youngsters may be around when watching this, as if that isn't too obvious anyway but I thought I may as well mention it to clarify the point.

All in all, it felt like quite a well made movie with a decent cast and an interesting story. This genre isn't one that normally appeals all that much to me but I had decided to give the film a shot because I had heard of it, I knew it was quite popular and did well when it came out, so I thought I'd try it and I found that I did enjoy it more than other such films, which I can only really put down to the story being more interesting, particularly the idea of mixing mob life with the Hollywood film business. I'm not really sure what else I could add about this movie inparticular but I did think it was quite well made and I feel it was worth watching.

The cast provide decent enough performances and the story is interesting, I found it pretty entertaining and as somebody who isn't particularly 'into' mob/gangster movies, I can only presume that fans of the genre would enjoy it even more, so yes, of course I would recommend it.