Total Recall: John Travolta's Best Movies
We run down the best-reviewed work of the Old Dogs star.
Some actors are lucky enough to make the jump from television to film stardom. Some are lucky enough to get their careers back on track after falling off the A-list. But how many stars have been able to do both -- and walk away virtually unscathed from the flaming wreckage of Battlefield Earth in the bargain? Only John Travolta, ladies and gentlemen. Travolta buddies up with Robin Williams in this weekend's Old Dogs, which inspired us to take a look back at a filmography far more varied than you might remember. Dramas? Comedies? Thrillers? Cartoons? Heck, Travolta's done 'em all -- and he's been doing it for more than 30 years, too. It's high time he got the Total Recall treatment, wouldn't you say?
10. Primary Colors
Based on a thinly fictionalized account of the 1992 presidential campaign written by Joe Klein (who hid, for a time, behind the nom de plume "Anonymous"), and featuring cameos by Geraldo Rivera, Charlie Rose, Larry King, and Bill Maher as themselves, 1998's Primary Colors could easily have been overshadowed by the real-life circus that followed Bill Clinton's administration during both of his terms -- but director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Elaine May had been a creative team for decades, and their comfort with one another, as well as a terrific cast, made Colors one of the better-reviewed films of the year. Travolta, tasked with providing a caricature of a sitting President that was still layered enough to carry an entire movie, passed with flying colors; as John R. McEwen of Film Quips write, "John Travolta continues to establish himself as one of the best actors of the younger generation, and this may be his best job yet."
9. Grease
You might be shocked to find Grease so far down on the list, but you probably shouldn't be -- Randal Kleiser's 1978 adaptation of the Jacobs and Casey musical was always more of an audience phenomenon than a critical darling, and although an 84 percent Tomatometer rating is nothing to sniff at, Grease is, in the words of the Apollo Guide's Scott Weinberg, "a critic-proof movie." Even Grease's most fervent fans can't help but recognize the inherent silliness of actors in their 20s singing and dancing their way through high school, but what drew people to the movie then -- and what even the stuffiest critics were forced to recognize -- is the effortless charisma of the movie's stars, as well as the instantly catchy songs that made the stage version such a hit. Just one year removed from Saturday Night Fever, Travolta continued his hot streak with a performance that ReelViews' James Berardinelli described as "a riot," going on to say, "Alternately swaggering to prove his "coolness" and re-affirming his ability on the dance floor, the actor gives the kind of performance that's perfect for the role."
8. Get Shorty
Its ill-advised, 10-years-later sequel may have been titled Be Cool, but it's really 1995's Get Shorty that has all kinds of cool, thanks to a Scott Frank script that does a tremendous job of adapting the Elmore Leonard novel that shares its name, assured direction from Barry Sonnenfeld, and a crackerjack cast that included the combined talents of Delroy Lindo, Dennis Farina, Rene Russo, Gene Hackman, and a resurgent, post-Pulp Fiction Travolta as gangster/cineaste Chili Palmer. Freed from the direct-to-video ghetto and clearly enjoying the opportunity to share a great script with a talented cast, Travolta earned the praise of critics like the Washington Post's Desson Thomson, who wrote, "This comic potboiler about gangsters in Hollywood would be a great piece of fun even without Travolta. But as a loan shark from Miami with a charming bedside manner and bigtime movie dreams, he raises the fun quotient into the sublime."
7. Bolt
Travolta kicked off the 21st century with Battlefield Earth -- and things didn't get much better for most of the decade, with the Travolta filmography enduring a string of high-profile duds like Swordfish and The Punisher. The last couple of years, however, have brought another re-ascendancy for the actor; though his movies haven't always prospered critically (see: Wild Hogs), they do tend to make money -- and a few of them have managed to succeed on both fronts. Case in point: 2008's Bolt, which gave Travolta the opportunity to pair up with tween queen Miley Cyrus (and briefly rescuscitate his long-dormant recording career with a soundtrack duet) in the tale of a deluded canine star who teams up with a cat and a hamster to save his owner from a fictional evil genius. Bolt may have looked like just another over-caffeinated kid flick, but beneath its bright CGI visuals beat a sweet, old-school Disney heart, reflected in a tender, intelligent Chris Williams/Dan Fogelman script almost entirely devoid of gratuitous pop culture references and scatological humor. The movie's less aggressive tone was appreciated by critics like Combustible Celluloid's Jeffrey M. Anderson, who wrote, "John Travolta's earnest, gentle voice performance as the title character goes a long way in making this Disney animated feature a winner."
6. Blow Out
The early-to-mid 1980s were unkind to John Travolta -- but before the career-suspending trifecta of Staying Alive, Two of a Kind, and Perfect, Travolta had the opportunity to star in Brian De Palma's Blow Out. A bleak thriller that successfully juggles a number of heady themes, Blow Out functions as both a darkly paranoid action movie and a savvy commentary on post-Watergate paranoia -- not to mention the nature of filmmaking itself. It's a far cry, in other words, from the blockbuster crowd-pleasers that made Travolta a superstar; perhaps unsurprisingly, it was almost completely abandoned by fans of Tony Manero and Danny Zuko. Which was unfortunate, because the role of Jack Terry, a sound technician who believes he's accidentally recorded evidence of an assassination, required Travolta to deliver acting unvarnished by white suits, the Bee Gees, or Olivia Newton-John -- and he proved more than up to the task. Blow Out eventually found an audience over time, thanks to the home video market, but critics were always on board; in the words of Paul Schrodt of Slant Magazine, "Blow Out is not known as one of Brian De Palma's horror movies, but of all his films, it's the one that feels most like a nightmare."
August M. on 11-23-2009 04:33 PM
Bolt and Pulp Fiction are the only ones I enjoy on this list.