zwolanerd

John Travolta turned 60 years old today, so he gets a list.  The most surprising thing to me is that there aren’t more movies on the list – not only did I think he had done way more movies, but I also thought I liked a lot more of them. I seriously considered truncating this list after #6, but I put the extra effort in because I like you.

10. Saturday Night Fever (1977) – I’m including this because you’re supposed to. It was a breakout role for Travolta, and he’s great at it, I just don’t happen to enjoy the film that much.

9. Grease (1978) – Some of the songs are fun, but I can’t get past the “remember, girls, the way to get a guy to like you is to change literally everything about you” lesson it blares. I haven’t seen Grease 2 – is it more of the same, just with worse songs?

8. Swordfish (2001) – He plays a bad guy with a soul patch and I think at one point a bus was being carried by a helicopter? I dunno.

7. A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) – I honestly don’t remember much about this one, but I have it filed under “I liked it okay” so I must have liked it okay.

6. Broken Arrow (1996) – I recently rewatched this one. It’s not great, but it’s fun.

5. The Punisher (2004) – My favorite Punisher movie so far, even though it has terrible elements (Miami? Really?). I really buy Travolta as the sadistic mob boss.

4. Face/Off (1997) – This movie is so full of crazy you can’t help but love it.

3. Phenomenon (1996) – It’s hard to explain why I like this schmaltzfest so much. There’s something about his character doing all of the things he can with the time he has left that is challenging to me, even if I can’t move pens with my mind.

2. Get Shorty (1995) – #4 on my Rene Russo list, #2 here. Chili Palmer is such a fun character that not even the not-good Be Cool follow-up in 2005 can ruin him.

1. Pulp Fiction (1994) – The thing you have to remember is that in 1994, choosing Travolta for this role was seen as a really weird choice by Quentin Tarantino. Now, of course, it’s impossible to imagine anyone else playing Vincent Vega. His dance with Uma Thurman at Jackrabbit Slim’s is one of only, like, 3 dances I’ve ever wanted to learn how to do.

I’m sure “Carrie” should be on this list, and I really wanted to find room for “Battlefield Earth” to be cantankerous, but I couldn’t bring myself to do either one. Sorry to disappoint.

Tags: Travolta, Tuesday10

Written by: Mark