Get Shorty

"Chili Palmer - it's chilly outside and it's Chili inside. It's a regular fuckin' Chili-fest!"

So said Ray Barboni, played by Dennis Farina, at the beginning of 1995's "Get Shorty." Right now I am watching "Get Shorty" for about the sixth or seventh time and the third time in a week. The movie is starring John Travolta as Chili, Gene Hackman as dumb-ass movie producer Harry Zimm, Rene Russo as horror film actress Karen Flores, and Danny DeVito as actor Martin Weir. The movie's got a great bunch of supporting actors as well including the aforementioned Dennis Farina who plays an outstanding part; Delroy Lindo, who you've seen in any number of supporting roles in everything from "Romeo Must Die" to "Broken Arrow" and "The Devil's Advocate;" "The Soprano's" James Gandolfini; and Jon Gries, who I barely recognized from his part as Uncle Rico in "Napolean Dynamite."

Aside from the writing and the cast, though, the most striking thing for me in "Get Shorty" is how freakin' cool Chili Palmer is. I really can't think of a cooler character in any movie off the top of my head. Sure, Dirty Harry is cool, as is Randle McMurphy in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and Tyler Durden in "Fight Club." The problem is that none of them are just as even-tempered and unwaveringly cool as Chili. From the pre-Barboni-confrontation statement he makes at the beginning of the movie "I'm not gonna say any more than I have to, if that" to his repeated easy beatings of Bo Catlett's bodyguard Bear, Chili is damn cool.

Think you know a cooler movie character? Email me - subgenus @ subgenus.net

Kopp