SummaryGotti follows infamous crime boss John Gotti’s (John Travolta) rise to become the “Teflon Don” of the Gambino Crime Family in New York City. Spanning three decades and recounted by his son John Jr. (Spencer Rocco Lofranco), Gotti examines Gotti’s tumultuous life as he and his wife (Kelly Preston) attempt to hold the family together among...
SummaryGotti follows infamous crime boss John Gotti’s (John Travolta) rise to become the “Teflon Don” of the Gambino Crime Family in New York City. Spanning three decades and recounted by his son John Jr. (Spencer Rocco Lofranco), Gotti examines Gotti’s tumultuous life as he and his wife (Kelly Preston) attempt to hold the family together among...
It’s a bad movie, but it has hints of the simplest failing of a lot of movies made by folks who come from long-form TV. It’s episodic to a fault, with no episodes fleshed out and developed, characters played by actors at least as interesting as Chris Mulkey (as underboss Frank DeCicco) and not the generic goombahs rounded up here.
Is Gotti the worst movie of 2018? No. I think that Gotti is quite possibly the most subversitve and well written works of media of the 21st century. Every descision of its presentation is meant to mislead the audience into thinking that it is some kind of "bad movie", however it is clear through aspects of film making that it is meant to be a deconstruction of modern and ninetys gangster films. However, first I want to list of the good qualities before I get into the analysis of this work of genius. First, the directing is top notch and mistakes are clearly used to immitate the gangster films of Martin Scorsese. For example there is a sequence that is just straight up a riff of The Departed, but it does it in a way that's meant to mislead you as in audience member into thinking that it's just a rip off, rather than a riff. Now, lets talk about the gun violence which is genuienly well done, every shot splatter of blood leaves the audience disturbed and sickened. It works perfectly on a level of presentation. Speaking of the presentation of Gotti, the story is framed through the scene of John Gotti Sr. talknig to John Gotti Jr., and it's similar to Nymphomaniac in terms of presentation. This is because the scenes deliever subtle commentary on the scenes being played throughout the movie. I won't spoil them becasue they are easy enough to inerpret, and legitmately fascinating once you understand them. I rewatched multiple scenes just to derive meaning from the scenes. It's quite fascinating how this film is frequently misenterpeted as being garbage, yet the sound track is clearly a parody. I mean, there are compositions ripped straight from older gangster films. I could ramble on and on but, the truth is, Gotti is the Black Dynamite of gangster films, it's a parody of the genre, and the things that are apparently problems are really just intentional goofs. It's a work of genius coming from a place of heart and I loved it. I truly want to watch it again and I think it's a great movie.
Gotti is technically inept, where every scene feels like a disconnected sizzle reel for a different movie than the previous one, but the fascinating thing it about is less what it fails to do than what it’s trying to do.
John Travolta, trying earnestly to act his way through a ton of lousy makeup and an even heavier slab of bad screenwriting, plays mafioso John Gotti in this chaotic biopic that jumps all over the place but still fails to manifest a pulse.
Connolly’s biopic isn’t a hagiography. The problem is that it’s not really anything. This is a strange thing to say about a notorious mob boss who was locked up for murder, but John Gotti deserved better.
I am probably giving this movie a bit too high rating, but still I don't believe it should get a negative one. Either way - the movie crams too many things together and loosely ties them up. It goes through so many years in the beginning without explaining too much and adding the substance to the story, that it feels like you should already know everything it is about when you watch it. It skips past so many storylines too fast and that makes you either feel that the movie is boring at parts or at some parts you just don't ''feel'' what is happening on the screen.
It's not the colossal failure a lot of people say it is, at least I think so, but yes, it's a total failure.
GottiI it's a dull, incongruous and foolish film, it's poorly constructed and poorly handled.
Undoubtedly John Travolta believed and still believes in the project, in a way it's evident he really tried but he has always been a limited actor and with the exception of his performance in American Crime Story, his career has gone on a growing decline for the past decade.
If he could actually put the same passion to try to find better roles and act better, he could have a more dignified closure for his career.
Gotti is another failure nothing more, I suppose too excessive by the abundant publicity it received and the ridicule that is having because of the 0 rating in Rotten Tomatoes. Obviously it's not a film that I would recommend but it's nothing different about what Travolta has been doing in recent years.
There are three reasons to see “Gotti” with the first being if you are a fan of John Travolta (I am), the second, if you are a fan of John Travolta and the third, is to see a performance rise above the script though as good as it is doesn’t quite save the film.
Upfront let’s just say that the film is not as bad as the critics who have been slamming it say it is. “Gotti” reminded me of the many “B” movies that used to be shown on the lower half of double feature bill in movie houses years ago when you saw 2 movies for the price of one. They usually starred James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart blasting away with machine guns.
The main problems with the film are first of all the screenplay which is all over the place as is the soundtrack and the fact that it is based on John Gotti, Junior’s autobiography so one thread shows the love between father and son, the father grooming the son to become the ‘Boss’ while another shows how he became called the Teflon Don and at the same time showing different aspects of the life **** in the mob, condensing all 3 “The Godfather” movies into 110 minutes of one film.
John Travolta shows what the film could have been if it had a good director, a better screenplay and an editor who cared about the final result. He is a good actor and even in some overly made makeup looks his ability comes through but not enough to save the movie!
In a way, it is worth seeing just to watch the cliché scene where one mobster shoots another 5 times and the latter gets up and runs away! Welcome to “B” movies.
Production Company
Emmett/Furla Oasis Films,
Fiore Films,
Gunslinger,
Highland Film Group (HFG),
Ingenious,
JTP Films,
River Bay Films,
Riversdale Films,
Scotty Gelt Productions