Get Shorty: Critic Reviews

It's part of the joke here that Chili is a die-hard cineaste and loves reminiscing about smart, stylish tough-guy films he has enjoyed. Get Shorty belongs on that list.

Minor, but amusingly droll.

This comic potboiler about gangsters in Hollywood would be a great piece of fun even without Travolta. But as a loan shark from Miami with a charming bedside manner and bigtime movie dreams, he raises the fun quotient into the sublime.

Irresistibly charming.

One of the pleasures of Get Shorty is watching the way the plot moves effortlessly from crime to the movies - not a long distance, since both industries are based on fear, greed, creativity and intimidation.

An entertaining comedy-thriller adapted by Scott Frank from the Elmore Leonard best-seller and directed with bounce (if not much nuance) by Barry Sonnenfeld.

A drolly offbeat look at Hollywood mores dedicated to the proposition that the best preparation for becoming a film producer is a stint in the criminal underworld.

While it's quite possible for the cinematically unaware to enjoy this film, this is a real treat for movie buffs. The story is as much about the love of motion pictures as it is about gangsters.

The result is one of the best movies of the year and by far the most entertaining.

In the category of amiable diversions it's awfully tough to improve on.

A pleasing satire on gangsters, hustlers and Hollywood.

A freewheeling comedy-thriller with the gift of the gab.

Hollywood has been in love with mobsters since the beginning of movies. But the other side of the equation has seldom been considered. That is, until now.

This Hollywood is the one we want to believe exists: no film school snots here, no MBA's, no dock-worker philosophers-turned-screenwriters. Just a town full of second-rate swindlers where a clear-eyed racketeer can keep his eye on the ball and rise.

A very cool, very fresh, very slick crime flick.

Everything clicks.

Sonnenfeld keeps all of this under two hours by cutting the movie at a dazzling clip.

...it seems clear that Get Shorty will appeal mostly to those familiar with the source material - as it has to be more coherent and fleshed out than this.

It's not an official masterpiece, but like Casablanca, it's a virtually flawless product of the Hollywood machine.

Released in the shadow of Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty - for all its acclaim - has never received its due as one of the funniest Hollywood films of modern times.