A few weeks ago, I was flipping through the channels and somewhere on HBO or Showtime, I found the movie Swordfish starring John Travolta and Halle Berry. The movie had already started but i tuned in anyway. Not because it's a good movie, because it's really not a very good movie, but because i knew that the scene where Halle Berry displays her nakedness for the world to see was coming up soon. Hey, sue me, I'm a boy...boys like boobs, and Halle Berry is one of the prettiest, sexiest women in the world, with nice boobs (they were naked). So, I enjoyed the boobs scene and watched the rest of the movie. When I was done thinking about Halle Berry and her "friends" I started thinking about John Travolta's career. What a bad streak of movies he's been in for a long time. And it's not the movies themselves, it's what his presence in them does to them. He makes movies worse. That's right. He's become a bad actor, making bad choices. He gets paid ridiculous amounts of money to be in movies that most actors would pass on. He has lost it. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
I was going to say that he's done 2 good movies since Pulp Fiction: Get Shorty and Broken Arrow. But, I can't really stick to that, because while Broken Arrow was sort of entertaining at times, it was in no means a good movie. So, since Pulp Fiction, he's been in one good movie...Get Shorty. That makes Get Shorty the exception that proves the rule. He gave a good performance in that movie, as did all the other actors on that flick. I really like that movie. But Pulp Fiction came out in 1994. That was 16 years ago. Yes, some of his movies were hits and some weren't. And yes, I feel horrible that he lost his son last year, that's a horrible tragedy and my heart goes out to him. And I'm not mad at him, I just think he's lost his way. And there's not much chance of me plunking down any of my money at a movie theater to see any of his crappy movies. Again though, I'm getting ahead of myself.
If you go back further than Pulp Fiction in 1994, and look at ALL of his movies, you start to realize that John Travolta has made mostly all bad movies. And guess what? He made them all worse. And more over, we realize that John Travolta isn't much of an actor. In fact, I'll contend that he's been good or decent in about 4 movies and hes' been in around 60 of them. Here's his IMDB page, scroll down and look through the list. I'm right aren't I?
Travolta was good in Grease, that was a good movie. And he was good in Welcome Back Kotter, playing the quintessential doofus good looking idiot we know as Vinny Barbarino. He was good in the TV movie Boy in a Plastic Bubble. He was good in Pulp Fiction. But the funny thing is that even in Pulp Fiction he wasn't really that good. He was kind of playing himself...a guy who's looks had passed him by, who's career was on the back nine, who was almost out of luck. The role was written for him by Quentin Tarrantino and it would've been a very bad choice for almost any other actor to play Mr. Vincent Vega. But almost every role he's had since has been pretty bad. Yes, he had those talking baby movies, and yes, he was in Saturday Night Fever, but he was also the sequel Staying Alive which sucked ass. But here's the most important thing about his career, and you really have to pay attention to this...he's made a kajillion dollars playing some sort of riff of himself, and that's been bad. He's had a short or long dance in almost every movie, which is weird. He's had bad hair in almost all of his movies, which is odd. He's smoked in many movies and he's not a smoker. And this goes to the acting part of acting, even if you don't smoke in real life, you have to inhale onscreen. If you're playing a smoker and you don't inhale, you look like a puppet with a cigarette dangling out of your little wooden hand. It's called COMMITTING TO A SCENE. Travolta can't commit to a scene. He uses bad voices, bad hair, bad cadence and cliched movements to make it seem as if he's acting. He's terrible. Most of all of his movies, I can't concentrate on them because I'm always thinking "gee, that Travolta got paid $20 million to do this?" It's always Travolta, not the character. Grease was good. Pulp fiction was "ok" but what else? And don't tell me Urban Cowboy, I thought his accent was terrible and never got over the fact that it was Travolta dressed up as a cowboy. Why? Who likes that movie?
In the end, Travolta's the winner here. He's made a king's ransom to go through the motions as a movie star. But being an actor for him, has never really seemed to be that important to him. He missed his calling as a singer, because he really can sing. But as an actor? I ain't buying it. If you're a smoker, you inhale. It's called committing to the scene, asshole.
I was going to say that he's done 2 good movies since Pulp Fiction: Get Shorty and Broken Arrow. But, I can't really stick to that, because while Broken Arrow was sort of entertaining at times, it was in no means a good movie. So, since Pulp Fiction, he's been in one good movie...Get Shorty. That makes Get Shorty the exception that proves the rule. He gave a good performance in that movie, as did all the other actors on that flick. I really like that movie. But Pulp Fiction came out in 1994. That was 16 years ago. Yes, some of his movies were hits and some weren't. And yes, I feel horrible that he lost his son last year, that's a horrible tragedy and my heart goes out to him. And I'm not mad at him, I just think he's lost his way. And there's not much chance of me plunking down any of my money at a movie theater to see any of his crappy movies. Again though, I'm getting ahead of myself.
If you go back further than Pulp Fiction in 1994, and look at ALL of his movies, you start to realize that John Travolta has made mostly all bad movies. And guess what? He made them all worse. And more over, we realize that John Travolta isn't much of an actor. In fact, I'll contend that he's been good or decent in about 4 movies and hes' been in around 60 of them. Here's his IMDB page, scroll down and look through the list. I'm right aren't I?
Travolta was good in Grease, that was a good movie. And he was good in Welcome Back Kotter, playing the quintessential doofus good looking idiot we know as Vinny Barbarino. He was good in the TV movie Boy in a Plastic Bubble. He was good in Pulp Fiction. But the funny thing is that even in Pulp Fiction he wasn't really that good. He was kind of playing himself...a guy who's looks had passed him by, who's career was on the back nine, who was almost out of luck. The role was written for him by Quentin Tarrantino and it would've been a very bad choice for almost any other actor to play Mr. Vincent Vega. But almost every role he's had since has been pretty bad. Yes, he had those talking baby movies, and yes, he was in Saturday Night Fever, but he was also the sequel Staying Alive which sucked ass. But here's the most important thing about his career, and you really have to pay attention to this...he's made a kajillion dollars playing some sort of riff of himself, and that's been bad. He's had a short or long dance in almost every movie, which is weird. He's had bad hair in almost all of his movies, which is odd. He's smoked in many movies and he's not a smoker. And this goes to the acting part of acting, even if you don't smoke in real life, you have to inhale onscreen. If you're playing a smoker and you don't inhale, you look like a puppet with a cigarette dangling out of your little wooden hand. It's called COMMITTING TO A SCENE. Travolta can't commit to a scene. He uses bad voices, bad hair, bad cadence and cliched movements to make it seem as if he's acting. He's terrible. Most of all of his movies, I can't concentrate on them because I'm always thinking "gee, that Travolta got paid $20 million to do this?" It's always Travolta, not the character. Grease was good. Pulp fiction was "ok" but what else? And don't tell me Urban Cowboy, I thought his accent was terrible and never got over the fact that it was Travolta dressed up as a cowboy. Why? Who likes that movie?
In the end, Travolta's the winner here. He's made a king's ransom to go through the motions as a movie star. But being an actor for him, has never really seemed to be that important to him. He missed his calling as a singer, because he really can sing. But as an actor? I ain't buying it. If you're a smoker, you inhale. It's called committing to the scene, asshole.
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