DVD
Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Recent DVD/Video Releases
68
$9.99
49
2012
56
Adam
37
Amelia
50
Armored
53
Astro Boy
35
Babysitters, The
66
Bandslam
86
Beaches of Agnes, The
19
Bitch Slap
65
Black Dynamite
71
Bliss
24
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
47
Box, The
51
Breakfast with Scot
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
76
Broken Embraces
71
Bronson
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
23
Couples Retreat
75
Crude
81
Damned United, The
54
Dare
61
Dead Snow
27
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
68
End of the Line, The
55
Endgame
47
Everybody's Fine
64
Examined Life
xx
Falling for Grace
31
Fix
74
Flame & Citron
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
64
Gigante
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
73
House of the Devil, The
82
Hunger
17
I Hate Valentine's Day
66
Informant!, The
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
49
New York, I Love You
34
Ninja Assassin
19
Old Dogs
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
39
Planet 51
86
Ponyo
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Princess & the Frog, The
49
Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The
84
Revanche
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
36
Serious Moonlight
70
Shall We Kiss?
24
Sorority Row
40
Spiral
41
Splinterheads
33
Stepfather, The
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
47
Time Traveler's Wife
44
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
83
Up in the Air
65
Vicious Kind, The
69
We Live in Public
65
Wedding Song, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
43
Women in Trouble
48
Wonderful World
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Get Shorty
Universal acclaim
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 11 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Elmore Leonard (novel)
Scott Frank
Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 25, 1995
DVD: March 24, 1997
Running Time: 105 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for language and some violence
Starring John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Danny DeVito, and Dennis Farina
Chili Palmer (Travolta) is a Miami loan shark who's sent to Los Angeles to collect on a gambling debt from film producer Harry Zimm (Hackman). Chili soon discovers that loansharking was the perfect training ground for making movies...though you have to be ruthless to make it in Hollywood. (MGM)
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
One of the best movies of the year and by far the most entertaining.
Read Full Review >Film.com John Hartl
Practically perfect in its unpretentious way, MGM's Get Shorty is the kind of smart, witty, polished entertainment that restores one's faith in the studio system.
Washington Post Desson Thomson
In Get Shorty, director Barry Sonnenfeld's spirited adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel, Travolta's rebirth accelerates directly into adulthood.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Hal Hinson
Barry Sonnenfeld's irresistibly charming lampoon of Hollywood.
Read Full Review >Film.com Sean Means
Director Barry Sonnenfeld captures Hollywood in sunny tones, with fluid camera moves providing maximum comic effect.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
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.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Hackman is unexpectedly hilarious. With protruding top teeth and a professorial beard, he's a motormouth, badgering and abusing one minute, wheedling and fawning the next.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser
This movie is charming the way so few movies are anymore.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
With Get Shorty, Sonnenfeld has shown that broad appeal doesn't necessarily equate with stupidity. That's a lesson Hollywood should learn.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
The author's sardonic voice has been lost in most films based on his fiction, but this one nicely captures that unruffled Leonard authority. And since Get Shorty is about Hollywood, it invites the sneaky self-mockery that gives this film its comic punch. [20 October 1995, p. C1]
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
An entertaining comedy-thriller directed with bounce (if not much nuance) by Barry Sonnenfeld.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
The jokes are quick, with clever jibes alternating with double-crosses and the occasional murder, and the streamlined plot unrolls like a colorful ball of twine.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The film is wickedly hilarious but more in a droll and knowing kind of sense than a har-de-har-har manner.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Get Shorty is exquisitely cast, with droll, well-nuanced performances.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
One of the sharper, funnier, better-cast, better-written movies around right now. But there's something about it that, well, comes up short. [20 October 1995, Friday, p.C]
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The picture has enough assets to please moviegoers willing to put up with its many four-letter words and the bursts of violence that spring from nowhere at unexpected moments. [27 October 1995, Arts Film, p.12]
USA Today Staff [Not Credited]
Though it sounds like a blueprint for either disaster or dynamite, the movie is a bit too controlled to be either.
TV Guide Harlan Jacobson
Get Shorty's assortment of lowlifes and high rollers is a familiar one, but it's still deeply satisfying.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz F. X. Feeney
A smirky black comedy that, like its John Lurie score, is jazzy, dry, and light on its feet.
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chris M. gave it a9:
This movie is a lot like "The Player" a little more entertaining though.
Dan C. gave it a 10:
Very much fun. Travolta, Hackman and DeVito are great. My favorite character is Barboni who can't say a sentence with some sort of profanity. The film is chock full of great dialogue. It makes you wonder why John Travolta stopped making films like this and Pulp Fiction in favor of crap like Basic and Domestic Disturbance.
Alex W. gave it a 10:
One of the best and original movies ive seen in a long time hats off to all the actors especially to travolta himself for his amazing portraly of the coolest guy i know.
Yoon Min C. gave it a 7:
Less a finished product than a rehearsal for a gangster comedy about the movie business(Tarantino crossed with Fellini of 8 1/2), it strides along amusingly enough based on the conceit that the story is the basis for the movie they are trying to make in the movie. A better movie would have finally brought all the disparate elements into a well-resolved climax(like Midnight Run or Reservoir Dogs where everything falls into place)but one can't complain too much with such star studded cast having so much fun. Priceless is movie ad with Devito as Napoleon.
Francisco M. gave it a 10:
I love this Movie!! Without a doubt Travoltas best work, and who can forget the Rene Russo. It is a classic!!
K. R. gave it a 10:
Incredible, very funny.
