Critics are slamming John Travolta’s latest movie about mobster John Gotti. The film has scored zero percent on movie review website Rotten Tomatoes, with 23 critics panning the film.
“I’d rather wake up next to a severed horse head than ever watch ‘Gotti’ again,” wrote Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post, referring to the famous mob scene in The Godfather.
“Starring in this mobster biopic that deserves to get whacked is an offer Travolta should have refused. Insane testimonials from Gotti supporters at the end are as close as this s—show will ever get to good reviews,” noted Peter Travers of Rolling Stone.
“That the long-gestating crime drama Gotti is a dismal mess comes as no surprise. What does shock is just how multifaceted a dismal mess it is,” wrote Glenn Kenny of the New York Times.
The film follows the life of Italian-American crime boss Gotti and his son. Directed by Kevin Connolly (Entourage), the film also stars Stacy Keach, Kelly Preston and Spencer Rocco Lofranco as John Gotti Jr.
The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and was universally panned by critics. Travolta has been working on getting the project released since 2011. In 2017, just weeks before it was set for release, Lionsgate removed the film from its schedule and sold it back to the production company Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films, reported The Wrap.
Gotti grossed just $1,670,000 during its opening weekend. As much as 40 percent of that take was generated by MoviePass, according to Deadline. The monthly movie ticket service bought a stake in the film.
Gotti isn’t the only film that’s on Travolta’s “Worst Of” list. Other stinkers include 2016’s Life on the Line, 1993’s Look Who’s Talking Now, and 1983’s Staying Alive. His most notorious failure is probably 2000’s Battlefield Earth, which was based on a sci-fi novel by L Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology.
Travolta is used to career highs and lows. He shot to fame in the ‘70s on Welcome Back, Kotter, Saturday Night Fever, and Grease. After disappearing from the spotlight during the ‘80s, he made a comeback in 1994’s Pulp Fiction. He returned to television in 2016 to play Robert Shapiro in American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, for which he received an Emmy Award. He has been nominated for two Academy Awards and seven Golden Globe Awards.
