Get Shorty

I know that no movie is perfect but for my money Get Shorty is on my short list of films that come close. As good as the book is, I believe the movie improved upon it. I have watched it a few times, it being one of those movies we might invite a friend over to watch who hasn’t seen it. Plus it has surfaced a few times when I surf streaming channels and I usually stop to watch for a while, no matter where in the film I am. The ensemble cast (which includes a few lower echelon stars) is excellent and mostly look like they are having fun with it. There is violence, but not with buckets of blood. It almost seems like cartoonish violence. And of course wit and humor run through it, with a bit of satire on Hollywood thrown in. I just found out today that a sequel was made called Be Cool and a British tv series based on the book, but I like this one so much I won't even risk disappointment by watching those other entries.

You know what, I really love Elmore Leonard, and a part of me feels that nearly any movie made from his works is going to come out as fresh, original, and worth watching. This is the rare exception. Here they took a classic Elmore Leonard plot and made it too Hollywood for its own good. And then they tried a bit hard to make it too much like a Pulp Fiction film, but with less bleak comedy and more slapstick comedy. You still have Leonard's unique originality...but the story has been raped and what's left is trash.