On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 7.74/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With a perfect cast and a sly twist on the usual Hollywood gangster dynamic, "Get Shorty" delivers a sharp satire that doubles as an entertaining comedy-thriller in its own right." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade "B+" on scale of A+ to F.