There are quite a few reasons why I love Get Shorty. First off, it falls into the Gangster Genre....but not really. You have Chilli Palmer (John Travolta), a loan-shark, looking to start a new life as a Hollywood Producer. That's another reason why this movie is awesome. It takes one well-known genre and then flips it into a completely different genre, while keeping a foot in both. I love the Hollywood Genre and even though they are nothing alike. The obvious choice is to pair up Get Shorty with Be Cool, but Get Shorty goes great with Bowfinger as a double feature. The other thing that makes Get Shorty sing is the awesome cast, headlined by Travolta, along with Rene Russo, Danny Devito, Delroy Lindo, Gene Hackman, Dennis Farrina, Bette Midler, Miguel Sandoval and James Gandolfini in a small role. Great cameo by Penny Marshall and Harvey Keitel.

There are a handful of great scenes that I love watching. One of them was when Chili is in the movie theater watching and reciting lines from A Touch Of Evil. It was great to see a character into movies as much as he is, but I really love watching Rene's looking of both amusement and adoration she has sitting behind him, watching him act out the roles. Fantastic scene. Another scene that really drives home what the movie is like is watching Chili 'teaching" Martin Weir (Danny Devito) how to 'act' like a wiseguy. Funny sh*t. Love the scene between Gandolfini and Travolta where Chili knocks out Bear to take him out of commission only to bond over the movies that Bear did stunt work in. I highly recommend this as a Buy to add to your personal DVD Library. 5 Stars out of 5.

I don't really feel like digging up my review from when I double-featured this with Striptease a few months ago (which really emphasized what works and what doesn't work in those two flicks), but I can remember really digging what an active character Chili Palmer was- he has a concrete want (to get a new career) and a concrete need (get the money) and everything he does pushes towards those two goals.  And he's so smooth that he can handle everything that gets thrown in his way, the "cadillac of minivans" is the perfect example of him just OWNING his surroundings (something he explains to Danny DeVito's character).