Review of Get Shorty (1995) by Edith N — 03 Feb 2009

Let's clear this up right now. That movie? It's definitely [i]El Dorado[/i]. That was, indeed, Robert Mitchum, not Dean Martin, and unless the dialogue in that scene is word for word the same in both movies (I'm not sure I've ever seen [i]Rio Bravo[/i]), the dialogue is from [i]El Dorado[/i]. I've seen [i]El Dorado[/i] so many times that I can pretty much recite bits of it. Further, Dean Martin would have had to have been wearing Robert Mitchum's hat, which I suppose was possible. Chili Palmer (John Travolta) sounds convinced and convincing, but I am not convinced. The only way I could be convinced, regardless of what IMDB also says, is if someone played me the scene in [i]El Dorado[/i], the scene in [i]Rio Bravo[/i], and the scene in this movie.

Chili Palmer is a petty enforcer for the Miami mob. He is sent to Las Vegas to pursue someone who owes the mob quite a lot of money. The guy isn't in Vegas anymore, and the guy who runs the casino he'd been staying at suggest that, while Chili is in LA, where the guy went, he pick up the money owed the casino by Hollywood producer Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman). Chili becomes swayed by the idea of producing his lifestory as a film, and the entanglements begin. You see, Harry also owes money to a dry cleaning concern that appears to be a money laundering front for Bo Catlett (Delroy Lindo), who has some shady drug dealings. Chili's boss, Ray "Bones" Barboni (Denis Farina, who always seems all mobbed up, even when he was on [i]Law & Order[/i]) wants the money Leo (David Paymer) owes him, the money Chili was sent out for in the first place. And Chili, Harry, and Karen Flores (Rene Russo) are trying to convince Martin Weir (Danny DeVito) to star in one of Harry's pictures.

I'm not much of a John Travolta fan. He doesn't really do nuance. His Chili Palmer is a blunt instrument, and I feel the character really calls for a fine blade. I have a hard time believing that he could get Rene Russo, but then again, her character is shown as having pretty lousy taste in men--she's also been involved with Harry and Martin. I have no doubt that Chili as portrayed here could get things done, but I don't think he gets them done with the panache a better actor could have provided. Chili seems awfully akin to Vincent Vega, and all Vincent Vega was was a hired gun.

I didn't find a single character in the movie interesting, in fact. Rene Russo's Karen didn't really capitalize on her character's history as a scream queen--once, her screaming may have saved Chili's life, but it's possible she was just screaming because, you know, gun. Harry's an idiot; I can't fathom why he thought some of his actions would work out. Bones is the same sort of bland, mobbed-up guy he always plays; he's not even as interesting as Detective Fontana, and I always thought Fontana was a poor substitute for Lenny. Bear (James Gandolfini) is motivated by protecting his daughter (Alison and Amber Waddell), but she's pretty much a MacGuffin to him. She's too young to really have a personality--she is, after all, young enough to be played by two children--and while he seems devoted to her, there doesn't seem to be much thought behind that on the part of the filmmakers. The drug stuff with Bo is never made clear. The whole thing was a mess.

I'm aware that I'm in the minority on this one. It's at 85% on the Tomatometer (actually higher than it is on IMDB, oddly). As I recall, both Siskel and Ebert really liked it. (1995 is long enough ago so that it was, indeed, Gene.) I'm pretty sure that my friends who have seen it all like it better than I. And, indeed, I don't think it was a bad movie. Just not a terribly good one. I've not read the story it's based on--I'm not sure I've read any Leonard--but I can only hope it's better, given Leonard's high standing.