"So Let it Be Written... So Let it Be Done"

The life and times of a real, down to earth, nice guy. A relocated New Englander formerly living somewhere north of Boston, but now soaking up the bright sun of southwestern Florida (aka The Gulf Coast) for over nine years. Welcome to my blog world. Please leave it as clean as it was before you came. Thanks for visiting, BTW please leave a relevant comment so I know you were here. No blog spam, please. (c) MMV-MMXIX Court Jester Productions & Bamford Communications

Saturday, November 04, 2006

SNMR 2.9: "Get Shorty"

Tonight's SNMR feature is "Get Shorty" (1995, R, 105 minutes), starring John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Dennis Farina, Delroy Lindo, James Gandolfini, David Paymer and Martin Ferrero. The film was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. I'm watching the 2 disc widescreen Collector's Edition.

I had never watched this movie in it's entirety before tonight. I think that my ex rented it once and I caught bits and pieces of it here and there. Maybe we even saw it on television or something. I can't remember.

From the DVD's dust case:
Loan shark Chili Palmer (John Travolta) is bored with the business. So when he arrives in LA to collect a debt from down-and-out filmmaker Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman), Chili talks tough...and then pitches Harry a script idea. Immediately, Chili is swept into the Hollywood scene: He schmoozes film star Martin Weir (Danny DeVito), romances B-movie queen Karen Flores (Rene Russo) and even gets reservations at the hottest restaurants in town. In fact, all would be smooth for this cool new producer, if it weren't for the drug smugglers and the angry mobster who won't leave him alone.


From Martin & Porter's DVD & Video Guide 2006, p. 436:
John Travolta solidified his status as the comeback king of the 1990's with his performance in this smart, often outrageous screen adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel. Travolta plays Chili Palmer, a collector for the mob who, after being sent to Hollywood to collect some outstanding debts, decides to go into business for himself - specifically the movie business. This is the best insider's look at the sleazy side of Tinsel Town since Robert Altman's The Player.


The movie was entertaining, though not as good as I thought it would be, considering the great cast. I thought the movie would be much funnier than it was. The writing was decent, I suppose. I've not read Leonard's novel, so can't say how much was added or removed from book to film. I think part of my problem with the film is that there were several scenes that really could have been done away with, rather adding to the further development of the main characters. I'll give this movie three out of five stars.

3 Comments:

At 05 November, 2006 22:57, Blogger Kayla said...

I started to watch this movie, but got bored with it, and ended up turning it off.
I'll take it from you that it's not worth trying to watch again, eh?
:-)

 
At 05 November, 2006 23:51, Blogger Tim said...

kayla: I was also distracted while watching this movie, so maybe that had some effect on my opinion. But I was definitely expecting more. I say give it another go and see whether or not you get bored again.

 
At 06 November, 2006 05:44, Blogger DaBich said...

I like Travolta, we found The Punisher on TV last night, and I loved how well he played the bad guy!

 

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