Top 5 John Travolta Movies
The two-time Oscar Nominee turns 71 today!
The New Jersey native touts a career that spans the last half century. September will mark fifty years since the first time John Travolta as Vinnie Barbarino came into our homes. He was an instant heartthrob. While that was not his acting debut, he had actually been in quite a few episodes of hit TV series and TV movies in the years leading up to his breakout role on “Welcome Back, Kotter”, it was the first time America took notice of John Travolta.
In the five decades since he’s worked a lot. And when you’re a volume shooter, there tends to be some hits…and misses. I’m here to honor both today on Travolta’s 71st birthday. I’ll do it the only way I know how…with a Top 5 list! This would technically be dueling Top Five lists, I think. One for the best of his career, and one for the worst.
Bottom 5 John Travolta Movies
5 - Look Who’s Talking Now (1993)
Americans of a certain age, you will not believe me when I tell you this, but there was a time when we were FASCINATED with Mikey, a talking baby voiced by Bruce Willis and dreamt of a world where John Travolta and Kirstie Alley could end up together, happily ever after. This phenomenon spawned a sequel “Look Who’s Talking Too” where Mikey got the gift of a baby sister (voiced by Roseanne), and we still clamored for more. We shouted as loud as we could to the powers that be for more, more, MORE! And they delivered with “Look Who’s Talking Now” where instead of giving us talking babies, we got talking dogs! Yes, multiple talking dogs. Rocks and Daphne. Voiced by Danny DeVito and Diane Keaton, respectfully. It landing on this list should tell you how it went, but if you haven’t guessed yet, it went poorly. To the tune of a ZERO PERCENT on Rotten Tomatoes.
4 - Be Cool (2005)
People forget about “Be Cool”. The sequel to 1995’s very funny/clever “Get Shorty”, Travolta reprised his role as mobster turned movie producer Chili Palmer. Chili decides (for some reason) to get into the music biz now. There’s a bunch of nods and winks to “Pulp Fiction” by casting Uma Thurman in the film. Danny Devito also shows up (I think that’s the last time he’ll appear on this list), Fred Durst plays himself (it is without a doubt NOT the last time he’ll appear on this list), and a number of other high-profile musicians. But the thing you probably remember most from this movie, if you remember anything at all, is The Rock playing a singing, dancing, cowboy who just so happens to also be gay. This might also shock you, the portrayal was…umm…not well done.
3 - The Fanatic (2019)
Directed by Fred Durst (see, told you he’d show up again), The Fanatic is a story of Moose. A man with special needs who stalks his favorite actor in pursuit of an autograph, kidnaps and tortures him for refusing. Travolta won a Worst Actor Razzie for his efforts. Durst and the movie as a whole were also nominated but lost to the ill-fated big screen version of “Cats”. The fact that a movie this bad, and this problematic only sits at number three is quite honest astonishing. There are a number of articles with facts and figures that will blow your mind about the movie’s $3,000 box office gross. I will attach them for you to read here.
2 - Gotti (2018)
Another 0% Rotten Tomatoes entry for our dear friend, John Travolta. He has three of these in his career, there’s only been about 45 in the history of Rotten Tomatoes. By my rough research, that is the most of any actor ever. The story of infamous mob boss, John Gotti, garnered six Razzie nominations. While it went home empty handed that night, it does live in infamy as a colossal train wreck. For example, John Travolta’s Gotti character narrates the movie…FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE!
1 - Battlefield Earth (2000)
Let’s address the elephant in the room, first. 3%, this movie has a three percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. No, I don’t know how. (The third movie in Travolta’s repertoire with a 0% is the sequel to “Saturday Night Fever”, “Staying Alive”)
I don’t really want to get into the Scientology of it all regarding this movie, that’s well documented territory. This movie is AWFUL, but it can be a lot of fun if you want it to be. Winning seven Razzie Awards, this caused the production company that made the movie to go out of business. The film has since gone on to win two additional Razzies. One for “Worst Drama of Our First 25 Years” and “Worst Picture of the Decade” in 2010. If you’re making a list of the most notable bad movies in the history of the art form, this one is definitely on the shortlist.
Now we can FINALLY move on to…
Top 5 John Travolta Movies
5 - Broken Arrow (1996)
This is the type of film Travolta found in the 90s and tried to recreate a number of times afterwards to varying degrees of success. It serves as John Woo’s follow up to “Hard Target” marking his second American movie. Travolta and Christian Slater fight over a missing nuclear weapon. It’s big, it’s loud, it’s dumb. It’s the type of movie that I think best utilizes Travolta’s talents. He’s clearly a movie star. He isn’t a great dramatic actor, but can chew up the screen and give you big moments.
4 - Carrie (1976)
Not a John Travolta movie per se, but it is a movie, it does have John Travolta in it. So I’m throwing it in. One of the better Stephen King adaptations follows the titular girl as she navigates high school with strange telekinetic powers. This is maybe the first thing a lot of audiences saw him in. It’s before “Kotter”, “Saturday Night Fever” is still a a year away. It was a small sample, but it was enough to get him hired for another fifty years.
3 - Blow Out (1981)
Five years after the success of “Carrie”, Travolta re-teamed with director Brian DePalma for “Blow Out” and I think it’s the superior film featuring these two. A movie sound recordist (Travolta) accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger. A great low budget thriller with a terrific supporting cast. John Lithgow, Nancy Allen, and Dennis Franz to name a few. DePalma freely admits that most of his movies are just him imitating what Alfred Hitchcock would do, and this is that to a T.
2 - Pulp Fiction (1994)
Vincent Vega is a classic movie character with many classic movie lines. Travolta earned one his two career Oscar nominations for the role. Pulp Fiction was famously robbed of Best Picture at the Oscars by “Forrest Gump” (overrated) and John Travolta lost out to Tom Hanks. It marked a career renaissance for the man who hadn’t a “hit movie” since the first “Look Who’s Talking” film in 1989. If that isn’t a big enough hit for you ($297 million) you’d have to go all the way back to 1980’s Urban Cowboy. I’m struggling to find a comp for just how “back” Travolta was after this. Robert Downey Jr in “Iron Man”?, Marlon Brando in “The Godfather”?, Matthew McConaughey winning an Oscar for “Dallas Buyer’s Club”?. It would be a very short list of biggest Hollywood comebacks.
1 - Face/Off (1997)
Before you get up in arms, please understand that I FULLY grasp the concept that “Pulp Fiction” is a better movie than “Face/Off”. I know, I really do. However, this movie rules. Travolta re-teams with John Woo to openly mock Nic Cage! Come on! Does anyone in “Pulp Fiction” swap faces with anyone?! Huh, do they?! (Keep in mind that Marvin just lost his face, he didn’t swap it with anyone). In this movie not only do you get the “Action Star” Travolta that I love, but you get what has commonly been referred to as “Full Cage”. Perhaps this is even one of the movies that coined the term “Full Cage” and for that devastating combo this movie finds it way to the top spot on my list.