Welcome Back, John Travolta ‘Get Shorty’ Thrusts The Crime World Into Hollywood

No matter how many times John Travolta hits the jackpot, it always seems like some sort of fluke. From “Welcome Back, Kotter” to “Saturday Night Fever,” “Urban Cowboy” to last year’s “Pulp Fiction,” the dude with the fuzzy stare and the slick-backed hair looks like Hollywood’s luckiest star.

Cast as Chili Palmer in the film adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s “Get Shorty,” Travolta’s luck holds firm. Once again, Disco John has a role that suits him beautifully - a laid-back Miami loan shark, on assignment in Tinseltown.

Of course, there’s a lot more to Travolta’s appeal than his apparent knack for just happening to be in the right place at the right time. But his charmed-life aura works especially well this time because it’s part of what makes the character he plays so intriguing.

Watching Travolta as Chili in this casually funny crime film, we see a working demonstration of the widely held theory that if you know how to handle yourself - and if you really love the movies - you can make it in Hollywood.

This principle naturally holds enormous appeal for anyone who has ever daydreamed about breaking into the film business. (And at one time or another, who hasn’t?) So as Chili tools around Los Angeles - tying up loan-shark loose ends while trying to ease his way into a movie deal - he plays out a common fantasy with uncommonly entertaining results.

Along the way, our hero meets up with an assortment of new-Hollywood types, not the least of whom is Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman), a director of Grade-Z movies who owes money that Chili needs to collect.

“I’ve seen better film on teeth,” someone remarks, slamming Harry’s exploitation pictures.

There’s also Karen Flores (Rene Russo), a Grade-Z movie actress, and Martin Weir (Danny DeVito), a famously talented (and famously short) movie star whom Zimm wants for his latest film - an uncharacteristically classy production.

Complicating matters are Ray “Bones” Barnoni (Dennis Farina), Chili’s dangerous boss, and Bo Catlett (Delroy Lindo), a thug who, like Chili, is trying to break into pictures.

“What’s the point of livin’ in L.A. unless you’re in the movie business?” Catlett observes.

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (the “Addams Family” movies) and adapted by screenwriter Scott Frank (“Little Man Tate,” “Dead Again”), the film holds close to Leonard’s work, which was pretty much a movie to begin with.

Bouncing from Miami to Brooklyn to Las Vegas (before settling in L.A.), the plot arranges for the characters to keep colliding: They cajole, romance and threaten one another with results that are often hilarious in an offhand, almost-accidental-seeming way.

Even somewhat meatier than he was in “Pulp Fiction,” Travolta carries the movie on his imposing shoulders. His character’s physical presence and quiet voice contain so much authority that he doesn’t often have to throw that weight around.

Chili’s patented catch phrase - “Lookit me” - is just about all he has to say when someone gives him a problem. The trick is in how he says it - menacing but unemotional, as if he owned the other guy.

Decked out in mock turtlenecks and bell bottoms, and sporting a goatee, Hackman is appropriately sleazy as Zimm. And Russo (“Outbreak,” “In the Line of Fire”), with that great jaw of hers, persuades us that Karen, despite her cheesy film roles, possesses a touch of nobility.

The fire-eyed Lindo (“Clockers”) projects as much authority in the role of Catlett as Travolta does as Chili, which is a lot. And before the film arrives at its surprising-yet-sensible conclusion, Bette Midler, Harvey Keitel and Penny Marshall have all popped up for short or short-short appearances.

Speaking of short, DeVito (who is listed as a producer here, as well as an actor) seems to be having the time of his life spoofing the concept of celebrity.

As superstar Weir, he carries himself as if he were always fully aware that his prestigious puss is on every billboard and magazine cover in sight. (And in the movie’s L.A., it just about is.)

The cast works together as a credible ensemble, each contributing something to this masterfully plotted movie.

“Get Shorty” provides some of the satisfactions of a fine murder mystery without actually being one, and it’s very funny too.

Hey, what more do you want? Go ahead. Lookit it.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: “GET SHORTY” Location: East Sprague, Newport and Showboat cinemas Credits: Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld; starring John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo Running time: 1:45 Rating: R