Movie review: ‘Get Shorty’

FloridaGator80

I have to say that director Barry Sonnenfeld is very hit-or-miss. Take for example his absolutely wonderful “Big Trouble,” which was taken from Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry’s novel of the same name. It’s simply great with great acting and writing and I’d say it was his last “good” film – I mean, really, Barry, were you so hard up that you had to do the trash rehash “Beverly Hills Cop” for TV?” Well, today I’m looking at another of his “hits” (not a blockbuster, but it’s excellent in the same way as “Big Trouble”) and it is titled “Get Shorty.” It is a film taken from an Elmore Leonard novel and it looked at the time as if Sonnenfeld could do magic with a good novel. Too bad, since he hasn’t done much since “Big Trouble” in 2002 (click here for my review) and “Get Shorty” is now far in his rearview mirror.

‘Get Shorty’
(1995; 105 minutes; rated R; directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo and Danny DeVito)

GET SHORTY? SONNENFELD GOT IT IN MAKING THIS ONE

(NOTE: I expanded this review with some more opinion and trivia and updated links on Aug. 12, 2018. I again expanded the review on July 18, 2020. I updated the review on Feb. 27, 2025, to note the death of Gene Hackman.)

We’re coming up on the 25th anniversary of “Get Shorty” and, while it’s not a film that will get a lot of notice on such an anniversary, you can use the date to revisit it if you haven’t bumped into it recently on the cable movie grid. It’s a good, solid film with excellent work by most of the principal cast and therefore worthy of the accolade of “watchable.”

(CLICK HERE FOR ALL MY MOVIE REVIEWS)

Celebrated crime writer Elmore Leonard was hot in the 1990s in Hollywood, but there’s a distinct difference between “Get Shorty” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown” (click here for my review), which was taken from Leonard’s excellent novel “Rum Punch.” While Sonnenfeld stayed true to the novel in his film, Tarantino followed a different path by changing not just the title but the location from Florida to Southern California. However, both work out well.

Of course, “Jackie Brown” is a far superior motion picture to “Get Shorty,” but the crime movie genre has very few better than “Jackie Brown.” Actually, Tarantino was reportedly the studio’s choice to direct, but Sonnenfeld got it.

Now, let’s get to the acting and the plot:

Although he’s the headliner and does his usual professional turn, John Travolta as “Chili Palmer” isn’t doing his best work here. Both Gene Hackman and Delroy Lindo do much better and even Dennis Farina in support surpasses Travolta’s work. Rene Russo, who would give a great turn with Sonnenfeld later on “Big Trouble” opposite Tim Allen, would join Travolta in trying to capture the “show” position in this race and she loses out only because of the headliner’s screen time.

If you’ve forgotten, “Get Shorty” is the story of a Miami mobster played by Travolta, who winds up in Tinseltown to collect from a second-tier movie director. Travolta, who is a huge movie fan, winds up wanting to get into the filmmaking business and finds out that his criminal experience serves him well cutting through the malarkey on which the Hollywood cognoscenti float.

Basically, “Get Shorty” mocks Hollywood and its culture and lets one direct, no-nonsense person cut to the chase with just about everyone.

Travolta navigates his way through the movie biz while taking care of some crime business and some past problems with his former peers and all the while doesn’t manage to lose his cool or even a minor skirmish in either fight. The plot is neatly intricate and just as subtly executed and is a pleasure to experience in a vast wasteland that usually offers up mind-numbing or intelligence-insulting excuses for stories.

The ending with Travolta’s movie being made (a quick movie-within-a-movie) and cameos by Harvey Keitel and Penny Marshall (uncredited roles playing, what else, an actor and director respectively) is a perfect ending to a neat film.

Here’s a rundown of some of the principal cast and their work:

  • A two-time Oscar nominee (not for this one), Travolta won his second Golden Globe for “Get Shorty” despite his less-than-stellar work. He tries to play it cool, but only comes off as the Hollywood phony cool (and no, he’s not playing that). His character is set to be confident and in control, but there’s something missing from Travolta’s projection of “Chili.” Mind you, he’s not bad, but he’s in some excellent company here and his talent just doesn’t stack up in any way close to Hackman. Travolta is best known for “Grease” (click here for my look at it and the sequel) and “Pulp Fiction,” which was his second Oscar nomination after “Saturday Night Fever” and he also has six nominations for Globes. Actually, I think he was best and the most endearing in the country-western classic “Urban Cowboy” and also was solid in the little-remembered Brian DePalma effort “Blow Out.”
  • The class of the acting field here is Hackman – as he is in most of his films. The two-time Oscar winner and three-time nominee plays “Harry Zimm” and completely draws you into his character as he tries to dodge Travolta’s collection of money and as he navigates Hollywood and winds up with a beating when a second tough gangster comes into his life. Hackman is just so breezily wonderful that you don’t have any trouble believing him to be a movie wheel. Hackman won his Oscars for his career-defining performance in “The French Connection” (click here for my review) and his outstanding portrayal of a cruel lawman in Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven.” He was also great in the little-remembered “Target” with Matt Dillon (click here for my review). He was wonderful, too, in the hoops film “Hoosiers” (click here for my review). Hackman, who was a native of California, was found dead at him home in New Mexico in February 2025 at the age of 95.
  • Rene Russo would have been better served with a better character (or even one that heats up the screen as she would four years later in the remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair” – click here for my review), but she does OK with her somewhat somnambulant role as “Karen Flores.” She just cannot make the character rise above mediocrity. Russo was so much better in “Big Trouble” and was solid in “Tin Cup,” which is the golf film that begs to be, but fails miserably in being a sports classic (click here for my review).
  • As I already wrote, Lindo is absolutely terrific here as criminal and Hollywood wannabe “Bo Catlett.” Just as Samuel L. Jackson was the powerhouse in “Jackie Brown,” Lindo is the smoldering presence of violence and true nastiness here. He does an excellent turn through his expressions in both looks and physical acting. Each glance, turn of his face or his overall physical presence is pitch-perfect to the scene – much like his work as “West Indian Archie” in “Malcolm X” with Denzel Washington. I also liked him in “Gone in Sixty Seconds” and way back he was a sergeant in “More American Graffiti.”
  • An Oscar nominee (not for this one), Danny DeVito plays “Martin Weir” and he’s playing the hottest actor in Hollywood and Travolta and Hackman want him for their movie. DeVito pretty much plays DeVito here, so it’s difficult to get a handle on just how good he can be in the rarified company of Hackman, et al. He certainly holds his own and that’s saying a lot here. I liked DeVito in both “Head Office” in a brief shot (click here for my review) and has the treacherous husband in “Ruthless People” (click here for my review). Well, I’ll also say he was pretty sensational in “Twins” with Arnold Schwarzenegger (click here for my review). He was one of three nominated for producing “Erin Brockovich” in 2000.
  • Dennis Farina plays “Ray ‘Bones’ Barboni” and he’s a mobster from Miami looking for Travolta. He wades into the role of a character with no-nonsense violence and does his usual good turn. He was both funny and tough in “Big Trouble” but I also enjoyed his dark character in the action-comedy “Midnight Run” with Robert De Niro (click here for my review). He was also in the film that introduced “Dr. Hannibal Lecter” to filmgoers (Michael Mann’s “Manhunter” – click here for my review). Farina was also great in the little-remembered dark drama “You Kill Me” with Ben Kingsley (click here for my review) and was a regular for awhile on TV’s “Law & Order” (click here for my review).
  • Bette Midler has a pretty nice supporting turn in both her acting and screen time – especially considering she is uncredited here. Midler plays “Doris Saphron” and she’s hot for Hackman here and just oozes energy whenever she’s on screen. Midler co-starred with DeVito in “Ruthless People.”

There are any number of other good supporting actors here – most notably a pre-“Tony Soprano” James Gandolfini as bodyguard and former stuntman “Bear,” who is on LIndo’s side, and John Gries as Lindo’s sidekick “Ronnie Wingate.” Both do good work, but it’s difficult to rise above the rest here.

A final point. What’s up with Travolta and how he smokes a cigarette? In “Get Shorty,” he has the same hand motion that he did in “Broken Arrow” (click here for my review – which also co-starred Lindo) and it comes off not just as affected, but as … well, stupid. I don’t know what gives here and Googling the issue doesn’t dredge up much.

“Get Shorty” was the 19th ranked film at theaters in 1995 with $72.1 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. Worldwide it made $115.1 million on a budget of $30.2 million, according to Wiki. The No. 1 film of the year was “Toy Story” with $191.7 million. Other films from that year that I’ve reviewed are:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com and Wiki):

  • The summer of 2013 saw the deaths of three key players from “Get Shorty” in consecutive months: Gandolfini (June), Farina (July) and novelist Leonard (August). Gandolfini died of a heart attack at 51; Farina at 69 of a pulmonary embolism; and Leonard at 87 of complications from a stroke.
  • Casting alert with my opinion: both Matthew McConaughey and Steve Buscemi were considered for the “Ronnie Wingate” role. Thank goodness the irritating and talentless McConaughey wasn’t chosen, but Buscemi would have been a quite interesting (and better) “Ronnie” than Gries.
  • Midler was five months pregnant during filming.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “According to Elmore Leonard, movie star Martin Weir (Danny DeVito), is based on Leonard’s own dealings with Dustin Hoffman.”
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “Michael Keaton, Bruce Willis, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Dustin Hoffman all turned down the role of Chili Palmer. While Danny DeVito was Barry Sonnenfeld‘s first choice for the role of Chili Palmer because of his natural charisma, he could not fit it into his schedule (he was directing Matilda (1996) so he ended up playing the smaller role of Martin Weir instead.”

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