This adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel explores the murky world of Hollywood's links to organised crime. John Travolta plays Florida gangster Chili Palmer, who arrives in Tinseltown to collect a bad debt from sleazeball movie producer Gene Hackman and decides to stay, importing his strong-arm methods into movie production. Made in the wake of Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty was the first attempt by a major studio to cash in on Quentin Tarantino's style. The performances by the impressive cast are exquisite: the jowly Travolta has tremendous charm but also considerable menace; Danny DeVito plays a movie star to perfection; and Hackman is a sheer delight as the purveyor of schlocky monster movies. Add Rene Russo and unbilled cameos by Bette Midler and Harvey Keitel and you have a snazzy treat.

Chili Palmer is a Miami mobster who gets sent to L.A. to collect a bad debt from Harry Zimm, a Hollywood producer who specializes in cheesy horror films. When Chili meets Harry's leading lady, the romantic sparks fly. After pitching his own life story as a movie idea, Chili learns that being a mobster and being a Hollywood producer really aren't all that different.