4 out of 5 stars

By J.C. Correa

It is not every day that you have freezing temperatures in Miami. Similarly, it is rare for Los Angeles to be graced with torrential downpours. Both of these surreal realities, however, occur within the first twenty minutes of Get Shorty, and what is sandwiched in-between them is as much of a doozy: The sight of Alex Rocco getting a rub-down while suspiciously looking very much like an older version of his Godfather gangster Moe Greene. Except, of course, his existence is not disrupted this time by a bullet that explodes through his lens and perforates his eye. Things are a little more lighthearted this time, in spite of them still orbiting around the world of the mafia. The playful titles, with their pink and teal design, accompanied by light, breezy music, surely let us know it.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, this oft-forgotten romp from the mid ‘90s is worth revisiting for a number of reasons, not least of which is that it serves as a great example of what you can achieve when you have a great ensemble cast filling in parts both big and small, with everyone operating at a high level.

Perhaps most significant of all is the fact that John Travolta, at the time of its making at least, was briefly the coolest kid in Hollywood once again, and Get Shorty offered him the perfect part to follow up his iconic Pulp Fiction gangster with and solidify that status. In fact, in many ways, Chili Palmer – always impeccably dressed in black – is the epitome of cool. And though he pulls his cigarette away from his mouth with the same graceful elegance of Vincent Vega, he at least doesn’t suffer the indecency of getting shot because of a penchant for reading while on the toilet. Travolta takes what he brought to Tarantino’s feature and fuses it with strands of Tony Manero and Danny Zuko to create the ultimate cinematic embodiment of his particular brand of cool. The Hollywood Foreign Press awarded him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for his efforts.

Chili is a charming and charismatic Miami loan shark stuck in the wrong profession because his love for movies outweighs his desire to be a tough guy. A collection job eventually takes him to L.A. by way of Las Vegas. Once in Tinseltown, instead of collecting a large gambling debt from sleazy B-movie producer Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman), he decides to pitch his recent Vegas stint as an idea for a flick to the unsuspecting and dim-witted Harry. Seeing a threat morph into a business proposition is as amusing as it sounds. Sensing an opportunity, Harry offers Chili a partnership and asks him to help him produce a script that really tickles his fancy. The first task would be to raise $500,000 to obtain the rights.

As it happens, $500K was stashed away at an airport locker by Bo (Delroy Lindo), one of Harry’s investors who is forcefully putting the heat on Harry and also doesn’t take well to his new kid in town. Bo is in league with Colombian drug lords, to whom the money belongs, which is why the locker is constantly being watched by the DEA. To complicate things, “Bones” (Dennis Farina), a fellow gangster in Miami, wants Chili’s head as much as the $300,000 he sent him to Vegas to collect from a dry cleaner who supposedly died in a plane crash.

Fortunately for Chili, he is mutually smitten with scream queen Karen Flores (Rene Russo), Harry’s current girlfriend, who also happens to be the ex-wife of Martin Weir (Danny DeVito), one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Taking advantage of Karen’s still-close relationship to her ex, Chili, in a great scene, schmoozes the diminutive star into playing him in his life’s movie. DeVito is a producer on the picture, having made it through his production company Jersey Films, one year after doing the same for Pulp Fiction.

If the plot seems busy and convoluted, you are not wrong in that assessment. The story was adapted from a 1990 Elmore Leonard novel and, as you may likely see by now, the material has the famed crime author’s fingerprints all over it. Fortunately, in the hands of director Barry Sonnenfeld, who is working from an adapted screenplay by Scott Frank, the lighthearted touch makes things very accessible. The intricacies of the plot and vast amount of exposition that is presented through constant, detail-filled dialogue are helped significantly by the spirited performances of everyone involved. Still, viewers who pay it the most undivided attention will undoubtedly be the ones most rewarded.

Doing another variation of his mob guy persona, the late great Farina is very funny and memorable. He makes Bones a hot-tempered thug who likes to project a smart and clever exterior, one that in the end only masks the nincompoop he truly is. Another late beloved thespian, James Gandolfini, plays Bear, Bo’s intimidating enforcer with a soft spot for stuntmen, having previously been one himself. The actor allows us a brief glimpse into the soft humanity of the hulking heavy, in ways similar to how he would do for Tony Soprano a mere year later before sending him into television immortality.

By now, you may have correctly guessed that one of the film’s greatest pleasures lies in its pitch-perfect acting. Unsurprisingly, the main highlight in this considerable collective is how Travolta’s ace charmer is offset perfectly by Hackman’s weasel of a man. Through his turn as the tacky and meager Harry, the recently-deceased star effortlessly reminds us once more why he truly was one of the all-time greats. Through a tsunami of fear and nervous energy, he plays weak and insignificant with the same ease that he brought imposing strength and stoicism to Popeye Doyle in The French Connection and Coach Norman Dale in Hoosiers. But Hackman’s not-so-hidden gem of a talent (at least for observant audiences) was also in comedy, and Harry allows him to do some minor slapstick, such as when, muscled down to the floor after getting the crap beat out of him by Bones, he tries to futilely aim a gun at his assailant’s testicles. Moments later he is forced to pathetically sip a strawberry daiquiri with two straws as a result of the aforementioned scuffle leaving him in a neck brace, while using all his strength to summon a forced smile. It is one of the most underrated and criminally forgotten of Hackman’s turns, mainly because these are traits also shared by the picture.

With inspired bits like a hilarious riff on the difference between “E.g.” versus “I.e.” in a barbershop, or Chili gleefully declaring that when it comes to movies, “I don’t think the producer has to know much,” Get Shorty functions as terrific satire while simultaneously serving as a funny crime thriller. Three decades on, it’s a joyous yarn that stands as one of the better films of its era.

Get Shorty is available to stream on Amazon Prime through May 31.