Guest WrestlingDeacon Report post Posted February 4, 2003 I haven't done this in awhile, so let's give it another go. What do you think is the best movie and the worst movie to feature someone who has had many career ups and downs in John Travolta? Giving reasoning is always good. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest IDrinkRatsMilk Report post Posted February 4, 2003 For best, I'd say Pulp Fiction. I can't get too specific in my reasoning, other than it was a good movie, and he performed the shit out of his character. He had the right charisma in his role, and he was a pretty unadmirable guy, but he still made you like him. He was cool. Some of that is Tarantino, of course, but still, Travolta was the right man for the job. Incidentally, I have seen Blow Out, which Tarantino said was his inspiration for casting Travolta, and didn't care for it much. Worst, one of the Look Who's Talking sequels. They all run together, and that's part of why they're the worst. Just a terrible concept for a movie... and then they made another one. And another. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest razazteca Report post Posted February 4, 2003 what he is known for: Urban Cowboy - play BUD the champion of bar room bull riding who works at an oil refinary, plus Debra Winger was in it! Saturday Night Fever - Disco dancing god, don't mess with his hair Pulp Fiction - Royale with Cheese and a Sprite is the hitman's favorite fastfood What he would like to forget: the church of scienceology movie - mere words cannot discuss how bad this movie was, the only thing good about this movie was the make up The Perfectionist - John and Aryie Gross try to teach a Russian community how to live the American Dream. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest IDrinkRatsMilk Report post Posted February 4, 2003 Battlefield Earth was funny to me. It was like Ed Wood had come back from the dead. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The Dames 0 Report post Posted February 4, 2003 I would have to say that his best movies were Grease & Saturday Night Fever as he became a household name with them. *Note, I'm not talking about the quality of the films*. His worst movie would definitely be Battlefield Earth with Lucky Numbers coming in at a distant second. Dames Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest razazteca Report post Posted February 4, 2003 Greese did make Travolta a superstar, but anybody could of played that role and been just as successful........ Bollywood remake! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest starvenger Report post Posted February 4, 2003 My personal favourite Travolta movie is Face/Off. Granted, for part of the movie he was playing Nicholas Cage (not a difficult task) so that Cage could play Cage, but he was pretty good playing the villain. Honourable mentions to Pulp Fiction and Get Shorty. And Welcome Back, Kotter - the Sweathogs + Beau just didn't have the same chemistry, y'know? Worst... well, I haven't seen Battlefield Earth, but seeing as it's universally panned, I'll just play sheep and go with the masses here. Baaaaa. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest razazteca Report post Posted February 4, 2003 do not waist your time on Battlefield: Earth, its a very bad remake of Planet of the Apes with some changes to reflect Sciencelogy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest converge241 Report post Posted February 4, 2003 i thought he was great in Saturday Night Fever Civil Action Pulp Fiction Face/Off Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Lethargic Report post Posted February 4, 2003 Just watched Fever and Urban Cowboy a couple weeks back. Those are two of the worst, most pointless movies ever made. How they turned that guy into a star is mind-boggling. No story, no plot, no characters, no reason to exist. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Downhome Report post Posted February 4, 2003 As I sit here and look at all the films he's been in, over at IMDB, I am realizing I actually enjoyed quite a few of his movies. Films like Swordfish, Primary Colors, The This Red Line, Mad City, Face/Off, Phenomenon, Pulp Fiction, Look Who's Talking, Grease, and Carie. Sure, he wasn't the main star in all of them, but I actually enjoyed all of these. Out of his other films, I either have never seen them, or do not like them. The only other one that I've seen, which I HATED, would be Battlefield Earth. I guess I like this guy more than I thought, lol. I just want to say, while it's not my favorite of his films, Mad City is a pretty good film that many overlook, it's really rather good from where I sit. My favorite however is more than likely Pulp Fiction. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest El Satanico Report post Posted February 4, 2003 Even Battlefield Earth was better than Look Who's Talking 2 & 3. At least Battlefield Earth had the "watching a train wreck" aspect going on. You just have to know how to watch awful movies. It takes talent to make a truly bad movie with a big budget. Look Who's Talking 2 & 3 were just painful and had no redeeming values. There was no such "so bad it's entertaining" to those movies. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest WrestlingDeacon Report post Posted February 5, 2003 My topic, so I'll chime in now. Travolta made a bunch of really bad movies in the eighties that got swept under the rug with his career resurgence: Perfect, The Experts (which razazteca misnamed as the The Perfectionists), Two of a Kind, Staying Alive. One I caught the other day flipping through the channels was Moment by Moment. Travolta bones Lilly Tomlin. That's pretty much the plot. It's cheap schmaltzy and poorly acted by all parts. An underrated Travolta film I would like to mention that I saw on VH-1 awhile back was Shout. It's a small, sweet little film that feels like I it could have came out in in the mid-fifties, which is the time period of the film. I am a big fan of Get Shorty and Pulp Fiction, so I would mark those as his best films and they expertly play on his charm and star text in unique ways. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Ravenbomb Report post Posted February 5, 2003 ok, what the crap is Scientology? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Choken One Report post Posted February 5, 2003 It's another form of Religion that I have no clue about...it's closer to Atheism then Christiantiy. Let's get to the topic at hand... Best Movies. Pulp Fiction Get Shorty Face/Off Mad City Primary Colors Worst Movies Battlefield Earth Look whose talking 1-2-3. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest bps "The Truth" 21 Report post Posted February 5, 2003 My favorite Travolta performance came in one of his little movies during his major down period (Per-Pulp Fiction) It was called Eyes of an Angel. The movie wasn't that special...but I really like him in it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Sassquatch Report post Posted February 5, 2003 Best Movie with Travolta as a lead character: Pulp Fiction Worst Travlta Movie: Too many to name but Battlefield Earth ranks up there. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Kahran Ramsus Report post Posted February 5, 2003 I've never seen Battlefield: Earth. Even the trailers looked horrible. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest razazteca Report post Posted February 5, 2003 the Church of Sciencetology is some "religion" of several famous hollywood actors who worship L Ron Hubbards book Diabolics, yes a sci-fi author is their deity. Its more of a secret cult of famous bad actors who trade secrets on how to cheat taxes or something. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LaParkaYourCar 0 Report post Posted February 5, 2003 Hey I liked Grease. I thought it was funny that they reused the school from Grease on Buffy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest IDrinkRatsMilk Report post Posted February 5, 2003 Not that Scientology is bad actor-exclusive. Lots of everyday people are Scientologists too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest starvenger Report post Posted February 5, 2003 the Church of Sciencetology is some "religion" of several famous hollywood actors who worship L Ron Hubbards book Diabolics, yes a sci-fi author is their deity. Its more of a secret cult of famous bad actors who trade secrets on how to cheat taxes or something. IIRC, they have a pretty large "church" in Toronto on Yonge Street just south of the Brass Rail... Off on a tangent, but I was wondering if the Triune Understanding in Avengers was based partly on Scientologists. Sass? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest razazteca Report post Posted February 5, 2003 ok then they use the bad actors in a hook n bait scheme to get new members for the cult Greese is a hit or miss movie, either you like it or hate it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest WrestlingDeacon Report post Posted February 5, 2003 The story I hear was that L Ron Hubbard created scientology out of a bet with Harlan Ellison. Harlan bet him that he couldn't create his own religion from scratch and have people follow it. He lost. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Lethargic Report post Posted February 5, 2003 I never thought that Hubbard meant for the stuff to get this big. It seemed like to me, (no, I haven't read the book myself just going on what I've heard) that all he was doing was trying to write a sort of self-help book. Trying to tell people his thoughts on how to improve their lives and live healthier and happier, crap like that. Then all of a sudden all these other people took the ball and ran with it and turned it into an actual religion. The weird part to me about Battlefield Earth is that I thought the novel was awesome. So I don't see how Travolta thought ass-raping this HUGE book down to a 2 hour movie was going to pay homage to his hero/God/whatever. The book is extremely long. It'd be almost like taking Lord of the Rings and only making it one movie. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest RavishingRickRudo Report post Posted February 5, 2003 Get Shorty by a country mile. I mean, you just don't get smoother than Chili Palmer... Look at me... Look at me... I am telling you, nothing smoother... I also dug Phenomenon. Worst Travolta? I gotta go with Battlefield... I mean, I generally like those kind of movies - hell, I liked the POSTMAN for crying out loud... Something about the end of the world, ya know? Anyways, just bad...BAD... BAAAAD. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest TheCynicalHateMongerFromHell Report post Posted February 5, 2003 You actually did a best/worst movie list for Ravolta? How pathetic. They were all bad. None even came close to being respectable. psssh. Honestly. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Dmann2000 Report post Posted February 5, 2003 The story I hear was that L Ron Hubbard created scientology out of a bet with Harlan Ellison. Harlan bet him that he couldn't create his own religion from scratch and have people follow it. He lost. Oh I hope that's true it'd be sooo funny I really like Blow Out, Face/Off, Primary Colors Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Agent of Oblivion Report post Posted February 5, 2003 Pulp Fiction and Get Shorty are by far his best. ...but I don't think people realize just how horrible Battlefield Earth is. It's one of those movies that's so unbelievably terrible, that it should be seen by everyone, just so everyone agrees that the bar has been set. Cavemen learn to fly jets that have been sitting dormant for an ungodly stretch of time. Keep in mind that these are illiterate slaves. They master the intricacies of flying advanced combat aircraft, then they hijack an atomic bomb and send it back to the home planet of the aliens that enslaved them via a teleporter of some type. This somehow sets off a chain reaction that destroys their planet. Yeah, that's the ending, and if I've spoiled it for you, I'm glad. Still, with all that said, I like it more than Grease. There isn't a word in the english language that can accurately summarize my hatred for that movie. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest tank_abbott Report post Posted February 5, 2003 What about when he played the boy in the plastic bubble?! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
