This witty crime comedy and satire on Hollywood movie-making was a box-office smash, leading to a sequel in 2005, in Be Cool. John Travolta gets one of his most notable roles as Chili Palmer, a cool, film-mad loan shark who comes to LA to collect money owed by Z-movie mogul Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman) and is soon pitching a film to him. Travolta is very amusing as the enforcer, Hackman is effective and Danny DeVito fun as Shorty, the tiny superstar Chili wants to cast in his movie. The throwaway dialogue contains quite a few little gems in the first truly successful film from one of Elmore Leonard's crime novels. Perhaps first choice director Quentin Tarantino regretted his decision to turn this down: two years later, he directed Jackie Brown, also based on a Leonard book.

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