Get Shorty. After a long, banal summer, Get Shorty hits like a bracing blast of cool fall air, reminding us why we love movies so much. Get Shorty (from Elmore Leonard's 1991 best-seller) follows the trail of Chili Palmer (John Travolta in a great performance), a collector for a Miami loan shark who heads for L.A. in search of a skip and lands smack dab in the middle of the movie biz. He falls in with movie producer/ schlockmeister Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman) and Zimm's big star Karen Flores (Rene Russo), who is also the ex-love interest of Hollywood's biggest star, Martin Weir (Danny DeVito). Chili hits Zimm up with an idea for a movie. Zimm likes the idea, but first wants to buy a hot script so he can offer it up to Weir. Zimm is also dodging drug dealers, who have given him money as a ticket into the film business and who are, in turn, ducking their angry Colombian suppliers. Chili dances through this jungle, impressing the phonies and winning the girl as he goes. And when the impatient loan shark hits town to find out what's taking Chili so long, it all comes to a wild (and wildly satisfying) conclusion.

Girl 6. This film about an enthusiastic phone sex babe has all of Spike Lee's typically brilliant style along with all of his typically elliptical content. Theresa Randle, as Girl 6 herself, swoons in and out of fantasy so that it becomes hard to tell what's real and what's inside her head. This might be nifty if it weren't for the fact that Lee embeds it all in a male-oriented, typically Hollywood world: All the phone sex girls are drop-dead gorgeous and they all wear skimpy outfits. Is this Girl 6's fantasy or Spike Lee's? Music from Prince livens up Girl 6 but overall, the concept of this film seems so confused that it's hard to tease any meaning out of it at all.

Goldeneye. Sorry to disappoint, but this is the most lackluster Bond movie in years. We can forgive 007 his sexism, his archaic cloak-and-dagger ways, and those ridiculous one-liners; but we simply can not forgive him for being boring. The opening scene does boast the highest freefall in history, which was probably a real adrenaline rush for the stunt-double. But from there, Goldeneye continues on a downward spiral, in spite of the spirited vileness of Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp, the Russian archbabe with the lethal-weapon thighs. Pierce Brosnan is not to blame: It's the script that's tired, not the acting. And there aren't nearly enough gadgets. With all the obscene sums of money they're willing to spend, we think the next one should be an IMAX production. Now that would be something worth $7.50.

GREAT WHITE HYPE. A movie that borrows half it's stylistic impulse from Blaxploitation flicks, half from spaghetti westerns--it will leave you nostalgic for both and unsatisfied with the combo. Samuel Jackson plays an unscrupulous boxing promoter who pits a white underdog against the black heavyweight champ in order to stir up a racist frenzy of promotion. That's the whole plot--the rest is padding, and there's plenty of it. It's mildly funny, slightly thoughtful, sort of interesting, and wholly mediocre. Jackson does get to wear some super-cool costumes though.

Grumpier Old Men. Walter Matthau is the boy and Sophia Loren is the girl in this boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl comedy that will disabuse you of the notion that age lends finesse and wisdom to love. Jack Lemmon and Ann- Margret play Matthau's next door neighbors who weather a few romantic storms of their own. Between misunderstandings, the men go fishing and bungle the wedding plans of their respective progeny. Yes, they're grumpy; yes, they're old; yes, it's as corny as Kansas in August. There are a few funny moments, and Burgess Meredith is delightful as the Dirty Old Man, but the greatest part of the whole movie are the out-takes that run beneath the closing credits. If only the script were as funny as Matthau is when he's forgetting his lines.