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.