My Top 10: John Travolta Films

Since his astonishing breakthrough in the late 1970's John Travolta has thrilled audiences in multiple eras of the film industry, and in many genres.
From being seen as the man that inspired many people to take up disco, to being a slick gangster.

While this blog to celebrate the best of Travolta, I have mention that the majority of his back catalogue has been trashed by the public and critics. But thankfully, there are enough big hits in there to have him as one of the biggest actors of the late 20th century.

Out of his 65 films, I have only seen 27 of them. I will rank all of the ones that I have seen, and then give a short review for each of my top 10. While it is clear that I have seen very few of his entire back catalogue, there is not many well reviewed films left that I have yet to see. I am not counting his appearances in The Thin Red Line and Savages, as he is in for a very short amount of those films:

27) Old Dogs
26) Wild Hogs
25) Michael
24) Swordfish
23) From Paris With Love
22) Look Who's Talking Too
21) Look Who's Talking
20) Look Who's Talking Now
19) Staying Alive
18) I Am Wrath
17) Criminal Activities
16) A Civil Action
15) The General's Daughter
14) Broken Arrow
13) Ladder 49
12) The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3
11) The Punisher

10) Phenomenon - While it does flirt over the line of schmaltz, corny cheesy, this touching drama I felt to be rather sweet.
It has a mystery and wonder to it that reminds me of films like K-Pax, Cocoon or The Abyss that just seems to work for me.

John Travolta plays the lead, plays a troubled farmer see a bright light that gives powers of super-intelligence and much more.

9) Be Cool - The follow up to Get Shorty that is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, mainly for the hilarious performances of Dwayne Johnson and Andre 3000.

Travolta is back as Chili Palmer. After succeeding in the movie industry, the former loan shark now wants to get into the music business. It is both funny and action packed.

8) Face/Off - Yes the premise is ridiculous, and yes we have another crazy Nicholas Cage performance. But it is one of the most fun action of the 90's.

It sees Travolta play an FBI agent planning to do a face transplat to impersonate the terrorist he is hunting. However, the terrorist (played by Cage) seems to have a similar idea.

7) Get Shorty - A mobster travels to Hollywood to collect a debt. But his stay makes him discover that the movie industry is a lot similar to what he is doing now.

This crime comedy with a stellar cast is a solid fun time, and never has Travolta ever looked so slick.

6) Hairspray - After landing a spot on local TV, a sassy teenager teaches everyone racial segregation whilst pursuing her dreams of being a dancer.

Travolta makes quite a transformation as the lead characters mother, that managed to work out well for this over-the-top feel-good musical.

5) Bolt - The film that I think begun Disney's modern resurgence and a Travolta performance that I never realised he actually did.

Travolta voices the title character, a dog of a popular kids TV show who thinks what he's doing is real.
However, a certain event begins a journey of discovery of the world that he really lives in.

4) Grease - Seen by many as his most notable performance, plays the confident and arrogant greaser Danny Zuko.

After spending the summer with the girls of his dreams, the realisation of being in the same high school could rekindle their romance.

It's a lot of fun, the performances are charming and there are plenty of songs that will get stuck in your head.

3) Carrie - This iconic 1970's horror sees Sissy Spacek play the title character who begins to discover some supernatural powers that has been in her family for generations.

Travolta plays one of the main high school kids that pull the biggest prank on Carrie, leading to believe she is popular in her high school.
This well written horror still holds up after 40 years.

2) Saturday Night Fever - Possibly one of the biggest breakthrough performances by any actor.

The year is 1977, and everyone is about to go disco crazy. Travolta plays Tony Monero, a teenager who feels his only way to succeed in life is to be the king of the disco floor.

It is beautifully shot and has a soundtrack to die for.

1) Pulp Fiction - The film that many people associate with the revival of Travolta's career.

That is thanks to director Quentin Tarantino, who shows us the lives of two hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife and pair of bandits intertwine.

This 1994 hit is ground-breaking and one of the most popular modern classics.

Review: Elle

A new Paul Verhoeven film these days is quite a rare treat. I like a lot of his previous work. While his stint with sci-fi's in the 80's with RoboCop and Total Recall were highly enjoyable. It's his erotic thriller that I think bring the best out of him. He seems to have a fetish of making the audience feel uncomfortable by showing content on screen that would be deemed politically incorrect, bold, daring, and controversial.

You could also call him an equal opportunities director as he seems to create a fair amount of strong female leads. A bit like what James Cameron does. Great examples are Sharon Stone and Carice Von Houten in Basic Instinct and Black Book. Also to a lesser extent, you could say the same for Showgirls and Elizabeth Berkley.

From the opening scene, you can instantly feel Verhoeven's prints all over it and that you are in for quite a ride. The whole story is unpredictable, and yet it remains exciting, tense and somehow hilarious.
The reason I say it's funny at times, is the use of black comedy. It always amazes me how you can make fun of a dark subject. Verhoeven and his writing team manage to do this quite often during the film, and the performances execute the comedy so well.

Speaking of the performances. Not only are they great, but my goodness are there some dysfunctional characters in this. Isabelle Huppert is brilliant at being the tough stone-cold-bitch character. She has a strong screen presence for every minute she's there. Her decisions are not what you would call predictable and what any mild mannered person would do, and yet you can still get invested with her. Whether you are unsure about the film, I think you can firmly agree that Huppert's performance is mesmerizing and is well deserving of her Oscar nomination. If her role was done by someone else, then this would have been a much different viewing experience.
There are lots of contributions from the supporting cast. Laurent Lafitte fits the tone of the film perfectly. Judith Magre has great chemistry with Huppert and created most of the film's laughs. Jonas Bloquet was a nice stand-out playing Elle's dufus son. His innocence gave the character a sweet quality to it despite the hilarious stupid things he says.

The only negative I feel mentioning comes from it's strength. While I think the uncertainty of it all is both thrilling and exciting, sometimes the decisions characters make fell odd and you question the tone a bit.
But thankfully, it is only a minor thing as the whole experience was really good fun. It goes places that you would not expect. But as it's Verhoeven, you should expect the unpredictability. What makes him as a great story-teller is the smart reasons he goes down these particular paths in such an extreme way. Huppert is nothing short of fantastic. She carries the film so well and is one of the strongest bad-ass female characters I have seen for some time.

It is smart, challenging and has beautiful performances. What I liked about it the most, is that you can see the film in many different ways. You can see it as a black comedy, a look at social satire or just another one of Verhoeven's erotic thriller, but with a much darker and more disturbing tone. What was also great about it, is the open ending. It still leaves a small amount to be unresolved. So that means it can be a great film to talk about afterwards.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Kong: Skull Island

Monster movies have become well known within mainstream society. Some are not quite as famous as others. But one that has certainly become known across the world for over 80 years is King Kong.

His first appearance in 1933 was in one of the most ground-breaking movies of our time. Fantastic visual effects, a romping adventure story and one of the first scores to have specific pieces of music for certain characters.

We have seen a couple of re-makes. The 1976 version was o.k., but was panned by a lot of critics. Then 2005 saw Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson give his vision. For me, that was a tremendous as the original as I love anything Jackson does.
However in the 1960's, Kong returned in another blockbuster that saw him do battle against Godzilla in the Toho International Godzilla franchise.

Now in 2017, Warner Bros. is beginning its own vision of King Kong vs. Godzilla. 2014 saw the Godzilla solo film, which I thought was pretty good. Director Gareth Edwards definitely put his style into that story and felt like something that Toho Studios would do.

I was surprised to see the 1970's setting. But I managed to like that choice in the end. It had an Aliens and Predator feel to it, with hints of Apocalypse Now and the second half of Full Metal Jacket.
The build-up to the action is fairly well executed. The action starts a bit abruptly, then the story moves a bit up and down and that's what happens for the rest of the film.

I would have liked more development of the characters. You can tell that they are trying to show a few subplots of various minor characters. But none of them seem to be fully fleshed out. Instead, we just get a bunch of missed opportunities.
If they were better written, then I think many of the action sequences would have had bigger tension and more meaning as we would be more invested in those characters in case they were in peril.
I could be cruel and say the characters were bland and hollow.

Tom Hiddleston's character could have been great. I think his character was supposed fairly intimidating and the main hero to get behind with. But instead, he's just ok and Hiddleston's charm does enough to make you not totally care if he gets in trouble or not. There is one really strange scene involving Hiddleston that seemed way out of left field.
Brie Larson was fine. From a personal view, I would give her the benefit of the doubt as I am a huge fan of hers. She's a beautiful screen presence, and sadly in this film, it's not much else. Like Hiddleston, I would have liked more from her. These two could have been a great duo. But in the end, it's just two big names that manage to make the characters barely passable.

Probably the most interesting characters are Samuel L. Jackson and John C. Reilly. Jackson does what everyone likes him for. He's solid for the time that he is on screen. There is also a fun little reference to a famous line he has said in one of his previous film. I'll leave to find out which one it is. It is most certainly not the one from 'Snakes On A Plane'.
Reilly's character is given a fair amount of history to make you want to come out of this alive.

John Goodman started well. I was hoping he would a bit like Jack Black's character in Peter Jackson's version. But in the end, he was totally wasted.

There was a little subplot from the minor characters that tried to be something emotional. But it just missed the mark for me. I can see they were trying to those types of memorable side characters like in 'Aliens'. Another missed opportunity.
It is a shame that the characters were never given enough backstory. You can see them trying. But then they just seem to give up and concentration on the action more. For some people, that's fine. But if you want a great movie that everyone can praise highly, then better written characters could have made this a highly enjoyable action blockbuster.

I liked the general look of it and the choice of locations. It looked very tropical and it was great the physical weight of the environment that our characters were getting through. For some reason, there were a few moments that the surroundings that looked very digital. I'm not sure if that was done after filming on location. But it just looked strange as to why they did that when they actually did on-location shooting.
The soundtrack was either well-used or slightly over-used. Some songs were great to have as a backdrop for some scenes. But there were a few moments when they slightly over-used some songs, which reminded of Suicide Squad. But on the whole, I liked the choice of songs from the period that they chose to set this film in.
The design and mythology of King Kong was pretty good. It is not as big of an achievement compared to the 1933 original or Peter Jackson's version with Andy Serkis doing the movements. But this was still a perfectly functional monster that look good on screen.
The creatures looked pretty cool. There were a set of creatures that while I understood there purpose, it just felt a bit pointless. They were just a simple plot device for our main protagonists to fight. I'd much prefer something a bit more threatening and have more meaning to the story.

I must say that there are some major inconsistencies with the editing and tone shifting within the writing especially. While the monster-on-monster scenes are well executed, the character scenes are very random. There are a lot of unnecessary use of fast cutting and slow motion shots that only last for about a second or two. That reminded me of something that Michael Bay or Zack Snyder would do. It was quite an aggressive way of shooting those particular scenes that were hard to feel comfortable with.
In terms of the tone, there were some scenes that took me out of the overall tone of the film. They felt more like deleted scenes that somehow made the final cut. In relation to the tone, a lot of attempts of comedy fall flat. A few worked for me, but the rest were like a lead balloon.

Despite those problems, I still found it to be a fun watch. I liked the action, the general look of it and the world-building. But the characters were not well written enough to make this a great film.
It is weird, because I could call this a missed opportunity. But there still managed to be enough content on screen to keep me interested as I was never bored. I would probably prefer the latest Godzilla instead as it was more consistent and invested more in its tone.

I must mention that there is a post credit scene. If you are a fan of the Godzilla films from the Toho productions days, then you will be excited to see this one. I certainly was.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Headshot

The name Iko Uwais has quickly become a big name in the action genre. From his breakthrough in 2011 with The Raid, he struck again with the brilliant The Raid 2 three years later. After a small appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ukwais is back in the leading role with another action film that could be as action packed as The Raid franchise.

From the tense opening scene, you can certainly expect another Raid vibe. It is both heavy in its violence, but also in its style of executing its action. While at times the action can wear you down, the combination of slick camera tracking and ballet-esque choreography make the fight scenes such a treat. There are many highlights with various action scenes in many places like in a bus, an office, a forest, a beach and then a final showdown in a bunker.
The camerawork is quite a violent one. It's as if its being thrown around very aggressively, and yet we still manage to see what is going on.

The performances were well done. The amount of work the supporting cast and extras have to go through must be a tough regime. To make something so brutal and yet graceful is all thanks to them. Iko Uwais is as great as you would expect. He plays the hero well and is easy to root for. Chelsea Islan was a solid leading female, and worked well with Uwais in the more dramatic and emotional scenes.
Sunny Pang was very haunting as the main villain, and it was great seeing Julie Estelle make an appearance, after creating a lot of attention from playing 'Hammer Girl' in The Raid 2.

It has a fairly obvious negative, and that is the thin and simple plot. I know The Raid films did not have simple plots either. But Headshot makes The Raid films look heavy detailed.
Thankfully, I don't mind a film like this to have a simple story. It may be nothing too different from your generic mindless action flicks from Hollywood. But what gives it its credit, is the high quality visceral action, stylish cinematography and kick-ass performances that make you care for the characters.

Some other reviews are calling the violence gratuitous. They are definitely more violent then in The Raid films. But I still feel they are highly entertaining and as impressive.

Many people never get tired of action films starring people like Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Seagal, Van Damme or Lundgren. For me, it is Uwais. I can certainly appreciate the talent in these films, and the execution of it makes it a thrilling and exciting experience.
It is amazing to see the talent that is out there, as director of both Raid films Gareth Evans is not involved in this project whatsoever. I am excited to see anymore directors that get involved. Also, I hope this is the start of a certain type of action films that will be embraced by the western world with open arms and have a bigger distribution.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Get Out

I had no idea who Key & Peele were until I saw Keanu last year. The American black comedian duo are beginning to fledge out of America to places like the UK.

I enjoyed Keanu and I was intrigued to how the Peele side of Key & Peele would direct horror.
I was not sure how to react to the trailer. It was certainly creepy. But I think the racial themes it was looking to cover made me unsure if this would be done in bad taste.

But with Jordan Peele's work being more of a comedic sense, I had confidence that he could give us something new and interesting to the horror genre.
While some of it might not have felt new, it was certainly interesting, as well as fun and exciting.

When a horror film works for me, it is usually about the lore or rules of the film. If you've seen Scream, then you know what I'm talking about with rules. I was having fun trying to figure things out, as it gives little clues as to what is really happening.
The whole film is certainly told from a perspective that you don't usually see. Especially in horror films.

Daniel Kaluuya was pretty good on the whole. I was amazed to find out that he was actually British, despite having an American accent all the way through. Allison Williams' character evolves nicely and becomes a stand out in several scenes. There were many very creepy performances. Most notably by Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Marcus Henderson, Betty Gabriel and Lakeith Stanfield. Catherine Keener was solid. Her subtle amount of creepiness seem to be nice and refreshing in certain scenes.
I have to finally mention LilRel Howery, who was great as the comedic relief. I can see being in a fair amount of comedy films.

When you read the plot, you can definitely feel that if this goes wrong, the viewing experience could be quite distasteful. But I think the execution of it made it work. The passive aggressive racism used is unsettling and yet it still manages to be entertaining.
The social and racial commentary is done such a satirical way that all audiences can get on board with. For me, that is the integral part of the films success.

While it does have some cliched moments you would associate with horror. It maintains to develop its cool and interesting ideas including the well executed use of racial satire to make this a really good film. While the trailer had a Wicker Man feel of it. It actually ended up being something more out of The Twilight Zone.
Peele and his team have done a great job. He seems to understand really well on how direct genre films. For a directorial debut, that is impressive. The mix horror and comedy works really well. There were minor negatives to speak of the tone not mixing in as well as it did with other scenes. But on the whole, they did something that not can do well with.

As I mentioned before, the performances are great. Kaluuya holds the film well as the lead and I can be in many major projects in the near future. I almost forgot to mention the score. It is particularly spooky and I have already listened to a few pieces from the soundtrack multiple times.

2016 was a pretty good year for horror, and 2017 has already shown horror is alive and still highly creative. I cannot wait to see what Peele directs next.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Christine

I knew very little about this true story. But I know the basics. It seems to be more well known in American society rather than across the pond. So with pretty much knowing how this story turns out, to win me over, it has to be about the build-up.

It's worked with films like The Social Network and any successful re-make. As for Christine, this is all about a character study, and a fascinating one. It also portrays the beginnings of how modern American new companies work to boost their figures. Saying that reminded of a film a couple of years ago called Nightcrawler. It also has obvious similarities to Network and Broadcast News.

For the performances, I have to go straight to Rebecca Hall It is quite a transformation for her and she completely inhabits this role and is terrific. I am shocked that she has been completely over-looked by every major awards committee. Hall carries the film perfectly, and her performance alone makes this a film a must watch.

Even with the film being pretty much about Hall's character. The support cast manages to contribute rather well. Michael C. Hall was really good in his role. Fans of Anchorman's Ron Burgundy should check his performance, as he comes very close to being almost a skit of him. Tracy Letts became quite integral to the story and how it developed. Also, Maria Dizzia has good moments, especially towards the end. A nice surprise was Timothy Simons, who plays such a sweet and innocent character that just makes you go "aww" every time he does something.

Apart from Hall, what this makes quite gripping viewing is the increasing sense of anxiety. It starts off with bright promise, and then it slowly whirls into a sad story of something I can relate to. It had that feeling of being a step behind everyone else who are going for the same dream. That feeling of being fragile and being left behind despite what you think you're doing is right.

While I know slow-burners never work for everyone, I think this is essential viewing. Not only for Hall's transformation as the title character, but to understand why this true story happened.
Director Antonio Campos really got under the skin of our main character. He made the whole viewing experience tense, unsettling, awkward, heart-breaking and I am not even talking about the brutal ending. Even with all this, there is a small amount of comedic moments, which I felt worked well.
The authenticity of 1970's America was perfect. It managed to feel so natural and that none of it felt like people playing dress-up.

It has a lot of interesting ideas going for it with a lot of good performances aiding it. Hall is the big draw and this could be seen as one of the hidden gems of 2016.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Logan

The X-Men franchise has had quite a journey. It is hard to imagine that it all started in 2000, and that is where the superhero movie phase pretty much kicked off.

This particular franchise has gone through many changes, especially in its now quite messy timeline. This is now the tenth film within the X-Men universe.

This is also supposedly the last performance by Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. It is quite hard to put into perspective that he has played this character for almost 20 years. Now that I have seen it, I will leave it to you to see the film whether or not you think this is the last time we'll see him.

From the opening scene, you can totally see why the film-makers were determined to give this a higher age rating. The violence is pretty brutal and there is a fair amount of swearing. It is nice to see a superhero film go as gritty and mature as its particular source material does. It shows the film-makers are passionate that this deserves to be the rating that they intended, and that they remain confident that they can still get a profit out of it. They really didn't hold anything back, and it is certainly not squeaky clean.

The story develops nicely and my general feeling was just that it was just great to see these characters in such a brutal environment. A few scenes managed to drop my jaw in amazement, both due its execution and the paths this story takes us.

In terms of the action, it is thrilling, exciting and definitely the most graphic within the franchise. While a lot of people will be more interested in the action. The emotion side was a nice surprise. There is real heart in this film and a lot of it comes from Jackman, with his scenes with Patrick Stewart and newcomer Dafne Keen. Plus, it ends strongly with yet more heavy emotional scenes involved.

Hugh Jackman gives a great portrayal of a Wolverine the hardcore fans have been longing to see. This is a beaten down and withered version of the most famous of X-Men. It certainly is a shadow of what he used to be. I liked the vulnerability Jackman gave and it is great how much more he can give to a character he has now played in nine different films. You would think he would just do a performance that is by the numbers, as he knows this character like the back of his hand. But I think due to the different tone, it gave us something that we haven't seen before.
I don't know if this will be controversial. But despite the top performance by Jackman, I honestly feel Dafne Keen was the star. For someone who was 11 when this was being filmed, she committed so much to this angry and violent character. She was simply the perfect choice. I want to see her in more films.
I liked Boyd Holbrook's character as well as his performance. He was going toe-to-toe with Jackman's character for quite a bit of the movie and was certainly the supporting actor I wanted to invest in the most. Patrick Stewart was as good as you would expect and Richard E. Grant was pretty good with his mysterious character. Despite it being strange at first, I thought Stephen Merchant's character was well developed and used.

While I'm glad to see the reviews elsewhere are seeing this as one of the best superhero films ever. I thought it was very good, but not quite up there with the best. There is a lot of good stuff in here and it certainly stands out compared to most superhero films.

A couple of minor negatives to speak of, the pacing and tone does get mixed up at times and that the swearing did feel over-used just because of its rating.

Despite that, I still think this is a pretty good film with lots to like, especially if you feel every superhero film is the same. Jackman is great in it and his chemistry with Stewart and Keen is strong.
I like that it felt more like a serious drama with action rather than a superhero film. Don't worry, it is not completely without humor. There is a small amount of chuckles in there. In fact, I could say that it felt like a western. The film actually does hint of the tone being a western in one certain scene.

It will be interesting to see if any other superhero films will go down this similar path of containing brutal content that would only be suitable for older audiences.

I must mention that there is NO scenes during or after the credits. Absolutely nothing. So you're time watching a bunch of names won't be required this time.

This is the first of six superhero films of 2017. We are off to a pretty strong start.

Rating: 8/10