Once upon a time, John Travolta was a bona fide movie star — a household name with a filmography that could make most actors weep with envy: “Pulp Fiction,” “Saturday Night Fever,” “Grease,” “Blow Out,” “Face/Off,” “Get Shorty.” You know, actual cinema. These days? The guy’s basically squatting on the throne Bruce Willis and Nicolas Cage built out of straight-to-VOD rubble.
Travolta’s latest contribution to the Redbox Hall of Fame is something called “High Rollers” in which he plays (you guessed it) a master thief pulled back for “one last job.” The trailer is truly something to behold.
It’s just the latest in a staggering run of bottom-shelf titles: “Mob Land,” “Paradise City,” “The Poison Rose,” “Trading Paint,””Speed Kills,” “Gotti,” “I Am Wrath” “Life on the Line,” “The Forger”… the list goes on, and it’s not pretty. In case you missed the last one, “Mob Land” (and you did), it made $179 in the UK during a three-theater run. That’s not a typo.
The sad part? Travolta actually had a bit of a mini-comeback in 2016. Remember “The People v. O.J. Simpson”? He was solid as Robert Shapiro. He even popped up in Ti West’s “In a Valley of Violence,” and it was like, “Hey, Travolta’s still got it!” But then… nothing. Seven years of creative purgatory and movies that feel like they were shot by money laundering producersz
Maybe he’s just enjoying life now. He’s got a Florida mansion with his own private Boeing 737 parked out front. (Google it, it’s real.) So yeah, starring in cinematic landfill apparently pays well enough.
Still, there’s hope. Quentin Tarantino has long hinted he’d love to work with Travolta again — and if the rumors are true that he wanted to cast the actor in “The Movie Critic,” maybe, just maybe, Travolta’s not done yet.
Until then, enjoy “High Rollers.”