No longer in as Perfect shape as he was once, John Travolta probably can’t sting like a bee or float like butterfly today as The Greatest did in his prime.
March 5, 2007 (Press Release) --
I’m the Ali of actors!”
But there’s no doubt that the man who caused a generation of women to suffer from Saturday Night Fever has enjoyed more comebacks than the former Cassius Clay.
“The right material at the right time is all that it takes,” Travolta tells The Bottom Line. “You’re always only one movie away from regaining your title. It’s whether that opportunity comes.”
For Travolta—next seen in the biker buddy comedy Wild Hogs (March 3), the 1940s-era art-house thriller Lonely Hearts (April 13) and the musical Hairspray (July 27)—that opportunity always seems to come in the form of a Look Who's Talking or Pulp Fiction.
At 53, Travolta’s only really had one period in his career when he’s enjoyed one hit after another. That came when Quentin Tarantino spared him a lifetime of Look Who's Talking sequels by making him oh so very cool—and bankable—again with Pulp Fiction. Tarantino’s narrative-defying crime caper led to Get Shorty, Broken Arrow, Phenomenon, Michael and Face/Off.
Things aren’t quite as bad today as it was in the mid-1980s, when Perfect and Two of a Kind wrecked everything Travolta achieved with the pop-culture phenomenons Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Urban Cowboy. While he’s not in need of another Pulp Fiction, Travolta has had more lows than highs since 2000’s vanity project Battlefield Earth made him a laughing stock and a Razzie Award winner. He enjoyed modest hits with Ladder 49 and Swordfish, but he also endured the disappointments Be Cool, Domestic Disturbance and The Punisher, and experienced the outright failures of Basic, A Love Song for Bobby Long and Lucky Numbers. With the exception of Bobby Long, you can’t help but question whether Travolta follows his own advice and accept a role based on the “quality” of the story and character he would play. (If this was the case, he would have accepted the roles eventually taken by Richard Gere in American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman and Chicago.)
Wild Hogs—which features Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy getting in touch with their inner easy rider—isn’t any better than the stale Be Cool. But unlike Be Cool, Wild Hogs doesn’t collapse under the weight of its ensemble cast. And the quartet makes this an amusing—though immediately forgettable—road trip.
“I like a team of funny people together,” Travolta says. “Makes me happy.”
Wild Hogs could make Travolta happier if it connects—which it likely will—with baby boomers who long to relive their misspent youth.
Done right, though, the musical version of John Waters’ cult classic Hairspray—with Travolta in drag as the matronly Edna Turnblad—could be the runaway smash to put Travolta back on top.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
But there’s no doubt that the man who caused a generation of women to suffer from Saturday Night Fever has enjoyed more comebacks than the former Cassius Clay.
“The right material at the right time is all that it takes,” Travolta tells The Bottom Line. “You’re always only one movie away from regaining your title. It’s whether that opportunity comes.”
For Travolta—next seen in the biker buddy comedy Wild Hogs (March 3), the 1940s-era art-house thriller Lonely Hearts (April 13) and the musical Hairspray (July 27)—that opportunity always seems to come in the form of a Look Who's Talking or Pulp Fiction.
At 53, Travolta’s only really had one period in his career when he’s enjoyed one hit after another. That came when Quentin Tarantino spared him a lifetime of Look Who's Talking sequels by making him oh so very cool—and bankable—again with Pulp Fiction. Tarantino’s narrative-defying crime caper led to Get Shorty, Broken Arrow, Phenomenon, Michael and Face/Off.
Things aren’t quite as bad today as it was in the mid-1980s, when Perfect and Two of a Kind wrecked everything Travolta achieved with the pop-culture phenomenons Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Urban Cowboy. While he’s not in need of another Pulp Fiction, Travolta has had more lows than highs since 2000’s vanity project Battlefield Earth made him a laughing stock and a Razzie Award winner. He enjoyed modest hits with Ladder 49 and Swordfish, but he also endured the disappointments Be Cool, Domestic Disturbance and The Punisher, and experienced the outright failures of Basic, A Love Song for Bobby Long and Lucky Numbers. With the exception of Bobby Long, you can’t help but question whether Travolta follows his own advice and accept a role based on the “quality” of the story and character he would play. (If this was the case, he would have accepted the roles eventually taken by Richard Gere in American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman and Chicago.)
Wild Hogs—which features Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy getting in touch with their inner easy rider—isn’t any better than the stale Be Cool. But unlike Be Cool, Wild Hogs doesn’t collapse under the weight of its ensemble cast. And the quartet makes this an amusing—though immediately forgettable—road trip.
“I like a team of funny people together,” Travolta says. “Makes me happy.”
Wild Hogs could make Travolta happier if it connects—which it likely will—with baby boomers who long to relive their misspent youth.
Done right, though, the musical version of John Waters’ cult classic Hairspray—with Travolta in drag as the matronly Edna Turnblad—could be the runaway smash to put Travolta back on top.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
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