Released in 1995, Get Shorty is one of the movies that was responsible for John Travolta having a real career resurgence in the 90s. John Travolta followed up Pulp Fiction with Get Shorty, is there a better big-time comeback than this? I would put Chili Palmer up there as one of the best roles that Travolta has ever done. I watched Get Shorty for the first time…. Probably since just before Be Cool came out in 2005! This was just as good, if not even better than I remembered it being.
Where to Watch Get Shorty
Get Shorty was released on October 20, 1995. You can stream the film from a digital platform.
Get Shorty Movie Review
The thing with Get Shorty is that it is kind of a hard movie to describe. The basics are that John Travolta plays the role of a loan shark or a shylark, as the movie refers to him as, for the mob. He is based in Miami, and after a heated incident involving a jacket and a new guy at the top, Chili is tasked with heading to Hollywood to collect a large debt.
Plot Summary: Hollywood Meets the Mob
Well, to say that this simple debt collection goes off the rails is an understatement. Somehow, Chili ends up rubbing shoulders with people in the movie business, and he discovers that the movie business is just as cutthroat and shady as the mob business. No spoilers here in case you have never seen this, but Get Shorty is one of those movies that you never know what is going to happen next the first time you see it.
Genre-Bending Crime Comedy
How can you not love this movie? This is part mob movie, part crime caper, part comedy, and part Hollywood satire. While this is seen as a John Travolta movie, and to be honest with you, until I watched this again recently, that is exactly how I would have described it. The supporting cast in Get Shorty is so much fun. Danny DeVito and Gene Hackman are fantastic, as is Rene Russo as the love interest. Oh, I for some reason had completely forgotten that a pre, Tony Soprano, James Gandolfini was in this movie, and he is so much fun!
The Standout Characters of Get Shorty
What I think this movie does really well is that while there is all this stuff with the mob, money being owed, and a potential movie to be made. At the end of the day, it is the characters that make Get Shorty, and there are so many great and over the top characters in this movie. There is just something so cool and fun about this movie; it is one of those situations where I feel like they caught lightning in a bottle. Which is interesting as ten years later, they would make Be Cool, and that movie felt like it was trying way too hard to be “cool” and hip, whereas there is just something naturally cool about Get Shorty.
DVD, Blu-Ray, and Get Shorty Download Options
I have had the DVD of Get Shorty and Be Cool in my collection for years, but in watching this again, this is a movie that I really do need to upgrade, but as of me writing this, there is no 4K release. Interestingly, there is a digital UHD version of this movie, but I have heard that it looks horrible. Hopefully, one of the boutique home media companies can take a crack at this. I just know I will get this on Blu-Ray, and then a day later, they will announce a fancy and special 4K release!
Why You Need to Rewatch Get Shorty
If you have never seen Get Shorty or have not seen it in a very long time, you need to watch this! I guess you could say it is a mob/gangster movie if you wanted to pigeonhole it into a category, but it is honestly much more than that. There are so many fun characters and so many great lines, it is the kind of movie you could make a top ten moments of, and struggle as there are so many to pick from! Now, I need to give Be Cool a second chance, and hopefully, that movie is better than I remember it being, as I remember it being very disappointing!
