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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer (RSDL )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • French: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • German: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English, French, Spanish, German, Polish, Dutch, Portuguese, English - Hearing Impaired, Italian - Hearing Impaired, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish
  Extras
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Booklet

Get Shorty

MGM/20th Century Fox . R4 . COLOR . 105 mins . MA15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Opportunity and chance come around every so often but for Leo Devoe (David Paymer), it came around big time. Leos luck changed when a plane he was supposedly on, crashes on take off killing everyone on board. Taking advantage of his fortune, Leo gets his wife to chase up a settlement with the flight company and is soon out of miami with $300,000 in tow.

In steps Chili Palmer (John Travolta, sounds like the name of a South American porn star going solo). He's a loan shark on Leos trail, sent to task by Ray Bones (Dennis Farina), to get back the loan that Leo took from some gangsters. While at the casino, Chili bumps into the casino owner who assigns him another task to collect a loan from a b-grade horror film-maker Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman).

Zimms next project is Mr Lovejoy and he hopes to secure the talents of Martin Weir (Danny DeVito), ex-husband to Zimms current squeeze Karen Flores (Rene Russo). When Chili meets with Zimm, he provides an idea for a movie that sounds like it could be great, given that it's based on his current task of tracking down Leo.

Things begin to get ugly when Loan sharks Bo Catlet (Delroy Lindo) and his bodyguard Bear (James Gandolfini) turn up to put the squeeze on Zimm. It seems Bo Catlet invested $200,000 in Zimms latest feature, while Zimm lost all the money on gambling. In a scared frenzy, Zimm offers his latest, latest project "Mr Lovejoy" as another possible investment opportunity decoy with which Bo wants to become heavily involved; Another one with the Hollywood bug.

As each task intertwines with the other and money exchanges hands left, right and center, it doesn't seem as though any movie will get made.

  Video
Contract

A very good transfer. There's nothing obvious about the transfer that makes it stand out from any others I've seen. MGM transfers are consistently decent, not great and not bad.

The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio accompanied by 16x9 enhancement. The image is generally clean with a few flashes of noise here and there. Interior shots seem to have a overly brownish tinge to the image that seems to bleed into the black level. Either the black level is not that great or we're looking at dark dark brown sets.

Color saturation is plentiful with some nice flesh tones and clothing vibrancy throughout the picture. Sharpness is fine as is detail but I craved a little more at times. The final scene seems to go out of focus for a short time but as the credits roll, who seriously pays any more attention to detail.

  Audio
Contract

Hmmph, at first I thought the surround levels weren't setup properly, then I realised the surrounds weren't connected at all, then I restarted the movie and still no surround action. Hmm, why bother with a 5.1 soundtrack if you're only going to utilise it when a plane flys overhead?

Dialogue is always clear and in synch. There's nothing much more I could say about the soundtrack that hasn't been said before in countless other reviews of similar transfer quality.

There is the occasional expanse of sound when the musical soundtrack kicks in but nothing that is head turning. Directionality is missing and ambience is of limited quality when there could have been oh so much more.

  Extras
Contract

You can't really ask for anything more than a theatrical trailer and if you do you're pretty selfish. Can't you people accept the fact that if VHS doesn't deserve extras then why should DVD. You all make me sick. I gather you don't sleep as well as I do these days.

  Overall  
Contract

This movie is nicely crafted and it has a certain appeal to it that I know alot of you would enjoy. I personally enjoyed it the more the movie went on and as all paths crossed, it became an even more interesting film to watch.

As the plot thickens and people start catching up with each other, things get zanier and more convoluted and eventually you start losing track of whos got what money and who it originally belongs to. Rest assured, everybody gets their just desserts and the film comes to a clearly scripted end.


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      And I quote...
    "...nicely crafted and it has a certain appeal..."
    - Steve Koukoulas
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-505 Gold
    • TV:
          Hitachi CMT2979 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Yamaha RX-V595
    • Speakers:
          Peterson Labs 100Watts
    • Centre Speaker:
          Sherwood SC-60E
    • Surrounds:
          Sherwood LS-502
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          standard s-video
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