The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016)

 

On the morning of June 13, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman are found stabbed to death outside Brown's Brentwood, Los Angeles condominium. Brown's ex-husband, NFL player, broadcaster, and actor O. J. Simpson, becomes a person of interest in their murders.

Good, informative and at times even slightly humorous Account of the O.J. Simpson case is thoroughly watchable, but the quality of the performances are variable from excellent (Paulson, Brown) to campy (Travolta, Gooding Jr.).

 

 

Staying Alive (1983)

 

Five years later, Tony Manero's Saturday Night Fever is still burning. Now he's strutting toward his biggest challenge yet: succeeding as a dancer on the Broadway stage. 

Stolid sequel of Saturday Night Fever doesn't live up to the quality of its predecessor, even annoys with Travolta as a dislikeable nag and with a third-rate 80s soundtrack; the show finale is a bit amusing, though.

Halliwell  (no star): "Fragile sequel to Saturday Night Fever, with some of its frenetic quality but none of its impact." 

Maltin**: "...fashioned by director/cowriter Stallone into a ROCKY-type vehicle for Travolta...Broadway show finale, Satan's Alley (billed, with amazing accuracy, as a musical trip to Hell), is a camp classic, but neither the script nor the music...are in a class with the original 1977 film."

 

Battlefield Earth (2000)

 

 

It's the year 3000 A.D., and the Earth is lost to the alien race of Psychlos. Humanity is enslaved by these gold-thirsty tyrants, who are unaware that their 'man-animals' are about to ignite the rebellion of a lifetime.

Trashy sci-fi drama is pretty bad in almost all departments including a silly plot and hammy performances; it actually seems like a parody, but unfortunately, it isn't one.
 

Halliwell (no star): "Asinine pulp science fiction is treated with the utmost respect: the result is never less than ridiculous, from the aliens' appearance to the juvenile narrative."

Maltin BOMB: "Clumsy plot, misplaced satire, unbelievable coincidences and a leaden pace trample Travolta's weird but amusing performance." 

 

 

 

I Am Wrath (2016)

A man is out for justice after a group of corrupt police officers are unable to catch his wife's killer.

Mediocre actioner oscillates as revenge drama, buddy story and political thriller without deciding what it really wants to be; despite the star cast it very much has the feel of an 80s B-movie.

Gotti (2018)

The story of crime boss John Gotti and his son.

Half-baked Mafia crime saga removes almost all interesting aspects of an otherwise fascinating biography; the result (including Travolta's performance) could be watched as a The Godfather parody, but albeit a bad one.

Savages (2012)

Pot growers face off against the Mexican drug cartel who kidnapped their shared girlfriend.

Basically a standard crime thriller with a highly contrived plot, but made with expertise and a capable cast; the double entendre ending is superfluous and disappointing.

Maltin**: "Stone encourages  his actors to go way over the top in this long, boring look at mostly scummy characters. Travolta comes off best as a corrupt DEA agent."

Lonely Hearts (2006)

Two homicide detectives track  a murderous pair known as the "Lonely Hearts Killers" who lured their victims through the personals.

True crime story gets a slight neo-noir treatment in this well-made, but not quite exciting movie, though Salma Hayek surprises in a very unusual role; a far cry from The Honeymoon Killers, which is based on the same story.

Maltin**: "Uninspired treatment of acutely unpleasant material..."

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

A Brooklyn teenager feels his only chance to succeed is as the king of the disco floor, and his carefree youth and weekend dancing help him to forget the reality of his bleak life.

An odd movie even for its time: at its core a bleak and realistic social drama, but interspersed with pulsating pop music and perfectly choreographed dance sequences.

Halliwell***: "Foul-mouthed, fast-paced slice of life which plays like an updated version of Marty except that all the characters seem to have crawled from under stones. The slick direction, fast editing and exciting dance numbers do something to take away the sour taste."

Maltin***: "Travolta's first starring film is thoughtful study...Film pulses to dynamic Bee Gees music score...Plethora of street language may offend some..."

John Travolta

Bio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Travolta

Blow Out (1981)

A movie sound recordist accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger.

Classic Brian De Palma thriller with an abundance of cinematic allusions, top-notch in all departments, but, this time around, not quite as suspenseful.

Halliwell (no star): "Showily unpleasant thriller concocted of equal parts of The Conversation, Blow Up, and Kennedy at Chappaquiddik; the work of a copycat talent operating below par."

Maltin**1/2: "Intriguing variation on Antonioni's BLOWUP...Absorbing most of the way, but weakened by show-off camerawork and logic loop-holes."

Pulp Fiction (1994)

The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

Arguably Quentin Tarantino's best movie, a stroke of genius concerning several intertwined plots swinging back and forth in time, a treasure trove of cinematic allusions, tongue-in-cheek humour and a very carefully and accurately selected cast; all his subsequent movies have been more or less variations of what you can find here. 

Halliwell***: "Clever, witty, violent celebration of junk culture, drawing rather too heavily on past thrillers but blessed with some excellent performances which crackle with menace."

Maltin***1/2: "Audacious, outrageous look at honors among lowlifes, told in a soemwhat radical style overlapping a handful of separate stories. Jackson and Travolta are magnetic as a pair of  hit men who have philosophical debates on a regular basis; Willis is compelling as a crooked boxer whose plan to take it on the lam hits a few detours. (In fact, there are no slackersin this cast.) This voluble, violent, pumped-up movie isn't for every taste - certainly not for the squeamish - but it's got morevitality than almost any other film of 1994."

Ladder 49 (2004)

After saving the life of one of the civilians inside, a firefighter finds himself trapped in a burning warehouse with a broken leg and looks back upon his life.

Above-average drama intended to celebrate the heroics of firefighters, sympathetic but quite sentimental.

Maltin***: "Warm depiction of firemen's lives as brothers in an extended family. Full of white-knuckle sequences depicting daring (but realistic) rescue operations, which cumulatively pay tribute to some of the bravest men on earth. Solid, old-fashioned storytelling."

Basic (2003)

A DEA agent investigates the disappearance of a legendary Army ranger drill sergeant and several of his cadets during a training exercise gone severely awry.

Well-made thriller with a good cast disappoints with an unexpected twist ending turning the whole plot topsy-turvy.

Halliwell (no star): "Ludicrous military thriller, set in murky jungle and heavy rain so that it is often difficult to see what is happening; nor is it possible to understand, since sense and logic are thr first casualities of its twisting narrative."

Maltin**: "Essentially a whodunit, this film keeps adding layers of confusion so that it becomes less interesting as it goes along! The final "twist" seems to negate the entire story, like a bad shaggy-dog joke. Travolta is in great form, however."