Milkduds

Get Shorty (9/10)

January 25th, 2005

Yes, I know this is a 10 year old movie, but after I saw the trailer for Be Cool and saw that it was basically the sequal to Get Shorty, I had to push it to the top of my Netflix queue. Get Shorty is about a movie-loving mobster named Chili Palmer (John Travolta) that goes from Miami to Vegas to LA to collect a debt from a guy, but gets caught up in the movie business.

I don’t know, maybe I was in a really good mood or something, but I just LOVED this movie. It has a very original story and great acting, cinematography, directing, and screenplay. I’m not in the entertainment business, but I’d like to think I’ve seen enough good and bad movies to know when I see something good. This movie is really funny - just the story in general is funny, but there also a lot of little things that made me laugh too. Like, the fact that this mobster has to drive around Hollywood meeting high-powered producers, actors, and other mobsters in a Oldsmobile Silhouette (the Cadillac of mini vans). And to make it even funnier and to exaggerate how superficial Hollywood is, everyone in the end is driving one to copy Chili. Now, I haven’t seen every movie that John Travolta’s been in, but I’ve seen a lot, and I can’t remember a better role he’s played or a better movie he’s been in outside of Pulp Fiction. It was also nice to see some of James Gandolfini’s earlier work, which I thought he did very well in.

The only negative to watching this movie was that, at the end I was thinking, “Why don’t they make movies like this anymore?” But, thankfully, Be Cool will come out soon and, hopefully, it will be every bit as good.

Entry Filed under: Movies