I remember that when "Get Shorty" debuted, many critics were in rapturous excitement over the film. As a result, I had very high expectations for the picture...probably too high. I liked the film but didn't love it by any stretch...and although I liked PARTS, the WHOLE left me a bit cold.

When the story begins, Chili (John Travolta) is a stereotyical Italian hood who earns his money collecting for the mob. However, when he heads to L. A. to collect a debt owed by a schock filmmaker (Gene Hackman),Chili unexpectedly seems little interested in collecting the money but in becoming the schlock filmmaker's new partner. Not surprisingly, various hoods don't like this and threaten to do terrible things to the pair.

The reason to see the film is not because of the script...which I found curiously uninvolving. Instead, it seems the appeal is in watching the characterizations and various vignettes. On this level, it's very watchable but nothing more.

Years ago George Raft who hung around so many mobsters in real life was asked whether he preferred the wise guys or Hollywood. Without a hesitation the man who played so many gangsters so well because he hung around them so much and it just rubbed off said that he preferred Ben Seigel to Harry Cohn. He never had a mobster go back on his word to him.

John Travolta probably studied that bit of wisdom from Raft, I'm surprised no Raft clips are in Get Shorty. Travolta plays a collector of debts and right now he's to get about $300,000.00 from producer Gene Hackman. But one look at Travolta and a star could be born.

There's also a schlepp who ran off with that amount and is thought to be dead in a plane crash. And some Columbians who are looking for some money they are owed for drugs. All three of these elements are woven rather nicely together in a nice black comedy.

And the girl Travolta is aiming for, Rene Russo star of the B picture horror schlock that Hackman produces. Shorty of the title could only be Danny DeVito who spends a lot further than his latest salary will take him.

My favorite scenes are when heavies Delroy Lindo and Dennis Farina both get some justice. Travolta and Farina don't like each other, but what happens to Farina is truly poetic.

In fact they put into pictures.

Chili Palmer (John Travolta) works for the mob. He's volatile, intense, and extremely street smart. When Ray Barboni (Dennis Farina) takes Chili's coat, he promptly punches Ray in the face to get his coat back. Too bad for Chili, his boss dies and he has to work for Ray's crew. He's collecting from producer Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman),and ends up getting into the world of movie making.

This is from an Elmore Leonard novel, and the sharply written characters are a testament to that. Whether it's Leonard's words, the top actors, or the flash of Hollywood. There's an artificial sense. It's light. It's breezy. It's jazzy. The movie is having lots of fun. It makes for a cute movie.