Get Shorty

Golden Globe(r) winner* John Travolta leads an all-star cast in the hysterical comedy thatTime calls "smart, shrewdly crafted [and] hilarious!" Loan shark Chili Palmer (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 intown. In fact, all would be smooth for this cool new producer, if it weren't for the drug smugglersand the angry mobster who won't leave him alone! *1996: Actor (Comedy)Get Shorty

Hailed by many critics as one of the best films of 1995, this finely tuned black comedy sparked a renewed interest in movies based on books by prolific crime novelist Elmore Leonard, whose trademark combination of tight plotting and sharp humor is perfectly captured here. After the success of Pulp Fiction, John Travolta continued his meteoric comeback as Chili Palmer, a Mob "mechanic" whose latest assignment takes him to Los Angeles, where his fascination with the movie business turns into a new career as a would-be movie producer. He pitches ideas with a sleazy producer (Gene Hackman) and a major star (Danny DeVito), and also finds time to deal with a vengeful Mobster (Dennis Farina) and assorted Hollywood types (including Renee Russo and Delroy Lindo) who all want their piece of a tempting show-biz pie. The plot unfolds with enticing precision, but it's really Elmore's snappy dialogue--and the performances that bring it to life--that make this one of the best comedies of the 1990s. --Jeff Shannon