Get Shorty (1995) - Sonnenfeld's Tinseltown flick is breezy fun

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Four stylish Hollywood stars in cool shades center this humorous poster for Barry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty

A Miami gangster goes to Hollywood to collect a debt, but then he has an idea for a movie and feels like sticking around. But in Hollywood someone is always waiting for their money...

Get Shorty is written by Scott Frank (Dead Again (1991)), based on the same-titled 1990 novel by Elmore Leonard (Bandits (1987)), and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld (The Adams Family (1991)).
Great stars like Rene Russo (Mr. Destiny (1990)), Danny DeVito (10 Items or Less (2006)) and James Gandolfini (She's So Lovely (1997)) elevate this amusing gangster-in-Tinseltown tale, and Sonnenfeld's stylishly firm and simultaneously light direction is ideally suited for the cocktail.

Related post:

Barry Sonnenfeld: Men in Black 3 (2012) - Third MiB-chapter entertains the suits and shades off of everyone!

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: Reportedly 30.25 mil. $
Box office: 115.1 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.80 times its cost)
[Get Shorty was released 20 October (USA) and runs 105 minutes. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Nevada and Miami, Florida from January - April 1995. The film opened #1 to a 12.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #1 for another 2 weekends and stayed in the top 5 another 2 weeks (#2-#5), grossing 72.1 mil. $ (62.6 % of the total gross). The film won 1/3 Golden Globe nominations and was nominated for a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. F. Gary Gray directed the flop sequel Be Cool (2005) with returning stars John Travolta (Look Who's Talking (1989)) and DeVito. Sonnenfeld returned with Men in Black (1997). Travolta returned in Broken Arrow (1996); Gene Hackman (Lilith (1964)) in The Birdcage (1996)); Russo in Tin Cup (1996), and DeVito in Little Red Riding Hood (1995, TV movie) and theatrically in Matilda (1996). Get Shorty is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.72/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Get Shorty?

Men in Black 3 (2012) - Third MiB-chapter entertains the suits and shades off of everyone!

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+ Best Science Fiction Movie of the Year

Josh Brolin, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones on the poster for Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black 3

Boris the Animal, a nasty, Boglodite alien, breaks out of his special moon prison and heads for Earth. The future thus changes, so that agent J will have to travel back in time to 1969 to get the villainous beast annihilated with a younger version of his partner agent K.
Tommy Lee Jones (Hope Springs (2012)) has gotten pretty old, - but is still fun and fully functioning in the MiB sci-fi. action-adventure buddy comedy universe. Still, it seems possible that this is, at least his, last Men in Black film. - And if so, what an end!
This film is wild fun and smartly written, - by Etan Cohen (who is also writing Ghostbusters III (announced)), - with funny new characters; Bill Hader (Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)) as Andy Warhol, Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks (2013)) as O, Josh Brolin (Wall Streets: Money Never Sleeps (2010)) convincing and hilarious as young K, - and a persuasively horrible villain (Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords (2007-09))). 

Jermaine Clement as Boris the Animal in Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black 3

Also, lots of wild effects and eye-popping aliens designed by series artist Rick Baker (Videodrome (1983)) and a high-flying Danny Elfman (Red Dragon (2002)) score.

Tommy Lee Jones holding one of Rick Baker's amazing aliens in Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black 3

Men in Black 3 is a superiorly energized joy from start to finish, a great time travel sci-fi. adventure, equal in quality to the first Men in Black (1997) and far superior to the lackluster first sequel Men in Black 2 (2002).
The director of all three of them, Barry Sonnenfeld (The Adams Family (1991)) has done a couple of TV movies since, and there has been written a script for a fourth MiB-movie, but no real news are out on the subject yet.

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Watch the exciting trailer here

Budget: 215 mil. $
Box office: 624 mil. $
= Box office success

What do you think of the three Men in Black movies?
If there's gonna be a fourth, do you have any comments or wishes for it?