"Get Shorty" will inevitably be compared to "Pulp Fiction". After all, it stars the hottest come-back kid in motion pictures today: John Travolta. If your looking for "Pulp Fiction" material "Get Shorty" has it, only in a toned-down version.

Travolta plays a "collector" for the mob. He's from Miami, but ends up in Los Angeles trying to collect on a debt. That's where he meets Gene Hackman as a small time Hollywood producer. Travolta get's hooked on Hollywood, and soon he has his own plans to make it big in the movie business. Only he has to get out of a few problems first: namely, his old boss, and a new mobster who wants to run him into the ground.

The film has a number of inside jokes and Hollywood snips. It plays well, but the jokes aren't as poinent as they were in "The Player", and the action is not a rough as "Pulp Fiction". All the actors turn in good performances, and the direction and editing are fine.

The structure is sort of haphazard as we move from one person to the next, in a random almost fluid way. It's not bad, yet not the most unique design.

In the end, "Get Shorty" is a good film to get a seat for.

Copyright (c) 1995 Tony Zidek