Get Shorty
Get Shorty
Based on an Elmore Leonard novel, the entertaining Get Shorty (1995) riffs on the post-Pulp Fiction wise guys shtick. It stars John Travolta as a movie-loving Miami loan shark whose pursuit of a small-time loser leads him to Hollywood and screenwriting. The comical cross-section of the criminal underworld and the entertainment industry features an all-star cast including Gene Hackman as a Hollywood producer, Danny DeVito as a star and Dennis Farina as one mean mobster.
“Elena Ferrante on Film”
Italy’s Elena Ferrante is one of the world’s bestselling authors, yet only two feature films have been adapted from her work. This Blu-ray set includes director Roberto Faenza’s The Days of Abandonment (2005) and Mario Martone’s Troubling Love (1995). In both, men behave badly and women react badly. Troubling Love is intriguing for its aura of mystery as the protagonist delves into her own memories and the troubled life of her mother, who just died.
Dragnet: Collector’s Edition
With its fanfare of doom theme music and rat-a-tat sub-Mickey Spillane cadences, the “Dragnet” TV series is easy to spoof. The 1987 movie, co-written by its star, wooden-faced Dan Aykroyd, has many humorous moments—albeit sometimes it’s tempting to think that the original was funnier for being so unfunny. Co-star Tom Hanks was still a newbie and looks incredibly young. Harry Morgan, costar of TV’s “Dragnet,” appears in the movie as Capt. Bill Gannon.
Gone Crazy
A low-budget movie industry producing for black audiences existed in apartheid-era South Africa. The director and crew of Gone Crazy (1983) were white but the cast was all black in a story apparently set in semi-autonomous “black homeland” of KwaZulu. The acting is amateurish and the screenplay preposterous. After the mayor’s house is firebombed, his wife calmly says, “We definitely need some coffee.” It’s one of several historically interesting apartheid flicks to surface on DVD.
