Okay, Elmore Leonard's the best crime novelist, ever. Many of his books were brought to the screen, thanks to his already great dialogue, his rich intrigues and his unusual characters. Of course, many adaptations were so-so and didn't get noticed. Who remembers "Stick", "Pronto" or "Touch"? Now comes the Scott Frank-penned "Get Shorty", an extremely enjoyable feature that captures perfectly the feel of the book. The plot is pure Leonard. He presents a whole gallery of people, than make them cross over from one to another, usually in order to get a hold of a large sum of money.

Here, we meet Chili Palmer, a loan shark who knows how to handle people. He's played in style by John Travolta. Man, the guy's fascinating to watch. He's such a good actor, whether he's beating people or just chatting. His Chili is full of attitude and almost painfully cool. Chili has to retrieve 300 grands that were stolen by a dry cleaner who faked his death. To do so, Chili goes to Las Vegas, where the guy is hidden. But that leads to another job, which is to make some Hollywood producer (the amusingly sleazy Gene Hackman) pay his gambling debts. The thing is, Chili just loves cinema, and he believe this is his chance to get into the business. So he convinces Zimm (the producer) to make him his associate. But it's far from being that simple. The story then mixes together a mobster from Florida (the abused Dennis Farina), an horror film actress (the smart, sexy Rene Russo), a huge movie star (the amusing Danny DeVito), a local thug (the impeccable Delroy Lindo), some screenwriter's widow (the colorful Bette Midler), as well as Colombian drug dealers and DEA agents.

But in Leonard style, it's more than just a caper. The film spends a lot of time with the characters, and there is a lot of interesting, snappin' cool dialogue, about Hollywood and other stuff. There are plenty of clever twists and memorable scenes, and the film's a good satire of the movie business, comparing it to the way the Mob works. What makes it work is also the performances from the all star cast, as well as Barry Sonnenfeld's stylish direction. He achieves to make a movie that's talkative and fast-paced at the same time.