330 reviews
It's bad enough this film took four directors, 44 producers and eight years to make, but then adding actor Kevin Connolly turned novice director, and two novice screenwriters made this film unbearable.
The writing was a hack job and all over the place and the director clearly had issues directing his all-star cast, not to mention his poor choice of camera angles and annoying zoom in's that seemed to be filmed by a 10 year old with a 1990's HandyCam.
The story itself was however very interesting and Travolta and the rest of the cast did the best they could with the convoluted mess the novice film-makers handed them.
It's a very generous 6/10 from me.
The writing was a hack job and all over the place and the director clearly had issues directing his all-star cast, not to mention his poor choice of camera angles and annoying zoom in's that seemed to be filmed by a 10 year old with a 1990's HandyCam.
The story itself was however very interesting and Travolta and the rest of the cast did the best they could with the convoluted mess the novice film-makers handed them.
It's a very generous 6/10 from me.
- Top_Dawg_Critic
- Jul 15, 2018
- Permalink
This chronicles the life of John Gotti (John Travolta) from a ruthless killer to the big mob boss of the Gambino crime family. Victoria (Kelly Preston) is his loyal wife. His son faces prison time of his own.
This is flat. There is little life to these characters. Travolta is doing an impression and I'm torn about his effectiveness. At times, he's doing fine but at other times, he's hamming it up. There is no doubt about the directing from Kevin Connolly. It is at best TV quality. The son is the key to a character based portrayal. Sadly, the kid playing the role is a muscle head and he doesn't have the skills or the experience. He's not given the chance anyways. There is no heart to this material.
This is flat. There is little life to these characters. Travolta is doing an impression and I'm torn about his effectiveness. At times, he's doing fine but at other times, he's hamming it up. There is no doubt about the directing from Kevin Connolly. It is at best TV quality. The son is the key to a character based portrayal. Sadly, the kid playing the role is a muscle head and he doesn't have the skills or the experience. He's not given the chance anyways. There is no heart to this material.
- SnoopyStyle
- Nov 14, 2018
- Permalink
Ok so before I start I have to say that this movie is only really going to make sense to those who lived through the life and times of John Gotti. If you are looking for a mob movie like Goodfellas this is not for you. This is a story that would be impossible to tell in 2 hrs but the film did the best it could and I respect that.
First off, on a budget of about 10 million dollars I think that the producers did a hell of a job. Everyone who is critical of this film has to realize that it was made with not that much money. Travolta made this movie. His acting was great and it needs to be recognized. It lacks the starpower of other mob biopics etc. but the actors were okay. I did not really care for the part of John Gotti Jr. and feel like they could have gotten someone a little tougher looking to play the part.
It almost was a character booster to clear junior Gotti at some point that I can agree with. All in all for what it is it is a decent movie. This movie never stood a chance being reviewed by critics. If you wanna see a good acting job by Travolta and you are interested in John Gotti you will be happy. If you don't know anything about the mob or any backstory on its history you might as well sit this one out.
- robbiemanning
- Jun 14, 2018
- Permalink
- tomgillespie2002
- Sep 11, 2018
- Permalink
If Gotti were alive today he'd go after the whole cast and crew for making such a terrible film about him...this film had no structure, had nothing moving the film forward just parts of his live that are better in a documentary...I forced myself to watch the whole thing and was disappently the entire time...E from Entourage made a movie worse than Medellin if you know what I mean...I'd give this film -10 stars if I could
...a better film. But the chosen way to tell the story of Gotti is wrong. It becomes pathetic. John Travolta has, maybe in too much measure, the desire to give the role of his career and the result becomes almost pathetic. Something essential is missing for transform the subject in more than a pledge for a dark hero. Sure, like each film of good intentions, it is a good first step to discover the life and activity of John Gotti. But, after each indulgence nuance, it is clear - it could be a better film.
- Kirpianuscus
- May 2, 2019
- Permalink
I'm not sure i've seen a worse mobster movie. Hard to portray a mobster when the man in question couldn't keep his own mouth shut.
Bear in mind I always thought the real life Gotti was my number 1 punching bag when it came down to trashing mobsters.
He is to organized crime as Isis is to any terror attack, claiming responsibility left right and center.
I understand the real life story could have made for some intriguing plot points and some decent filler for a film, but everything from the Son's death to Travolta's performance felt laughable, and the movie as a whole was all over the place. Are you supposed to like him, hate him?
Had this been a more low budget picture, I could forgive this poorly executed movie. Sadly this tried to be a box office motion picture when it should have gone straight to DVD or even TV movie. It's a movie I could see someone randomly changing tv stations stopping to see for a few minutes before realizing they were better off watching re-runs of some bad reality tv show.
Seriously E (Kevin Connolly) stick to what you were good at, it's clearly not directing.
I understand the real life story could have made for some intriguing plot points and some decent filler for a film, but everything from the Son's death to Travolta's performance felt laughable, and the movie as a whole was all over the place. Are you supposed to like him, hate him?
Had this been a more low budget picture, I could forgive this poorly executed movie. Sadly this tried to be a box office motion picture when it should have gone straight to DVD or even TV movie. It's a movie I could see someone randomly changing tv stations stopping to see for a few minutes before realizing they were better off watching re-runs of some bad reality tv show.
Seriously E (Kevin Connolly) stick to what you were good at, it's clearly not directing.
I am a huge mobster movie fan, and love the HBO special that came out back in the day with Armand Assante, but this was an absolutely atrocious attempt at portraying the most legendary mafia boss in history. It was so horribly directed, and boring, I turned it off in less than an hour. So many parts of it were inaccurate, and it jumped around in a way that was almost impossible to watch because I really didnt care about any of the characters based on how badly they were cast, including Travolta who I like as an actor usually. Do not watch this movie, it is an insult to Gotti fans that this was even produced.
- PokerStar81
- Sep 12, 2018
- Permalink
Travolta really carries this movie, some frankly odd casting choices aside, it was well acted, and fairly competently directed. It does show it's limited budget at times where some scenes could have used a few extra takes, and some better editing.
Realistically this was a great turn for Travolta who made some fairly bold choices for the character. He could have played Gotti off as cold and "chilling" man who could turn on the charisma at will; but instead played him off fairly earnestly. Which matches fairly well the characterizations of the Mob boss I've read over the years which painted him as a man who was charming and sociable, yet could turn violent and back to charming within consecutive moments.
I think that people may have preferred to see a more chilling portrayal more akin to Depp's in Black Mass. Which while was a great performance, failed to show why Bulger was a folk hero to many in Boston.
In the end, Travolta may have played the role too "straight" which humanized Gotti. Which certainly tuned many people off to the movie.
In the end, the budget was to me the biggest impediment to the movie's overall success. It could have used a better supporting cast, and some better scene choices at times.
7/10 that could have easily become a 9/10 had the quality been higher.
On a side note, am I the only one who's happy to finally see Travolta's face settling after what I can only assume was extensive plastic surgery? He looked like he was wearing a mask for a couple of years there. He's back to looking human, and while he'll never pull off 40 again, he's looking good for the first time in years.
Realistically this was a great turn for Travolta who made some fairly bold choices for the character. He could have played Gotti off as cold and "chilling" man who could turn on the charisma at will; but instead played him off fairly earnestly. Which matches fairly well the characterizations of the Mob boss I've read over the years which painted him as a man who was charming and sociable, yet could turn violent and back to charming within consecutive moments.
I think that people may have preferred to see a more chilling portrayal more akin to Depp's in Black Mass. Which while was a great performance, failed to show why Bulger was a folk hero to many in Boston.
In the end, Travolta may have played the role too "straight" which humanized Gotti. Which certainly tuned many people off to the movie.
In the end, the budget was to me the biggest impediment to the movie's overall success. It could have used a better supporting cast, and some better scene choices at times.
7/10 that could have easily become a 9/10 had the quality been higher.
On a side note, am I the only one who's happy to finally see Travolta's face settling after what I can only assume was extensive plastic surgery? He looked like he was wearing a mask for a couple of years there. He's back to looking human, and while he'll never pull off 40 again, he's looking good for the first time in years.
- Silvertip_M
- Jun 18, 2018
- Permalink
There's an attempt here to give us a flavour of the life of John Gotti - the Teflon Don; the real-life godfather; the head of the Gambino crime family in New York City. It centres around a visit by John Jr. to his father in prison, as Gotti is dying of cancer and Junior is cutting a deal with prosecutors to serve his time and then get out of the life. And as that encounter progresses, the story of Gotti's "career" and its impact on his real family is revealed as he rose to head of the family.
To be blunt, this isn't a great movie. It paints a picture of life in organized crime, but to me it seemed poorly put together, with no real flow or over-arching narrative; things just being thrown together sometimes with little rhyme or reason. There isn't really much in the way of character development. We get the point that we're watching movie about a bunch of mobsters, but I can't honestly say that I found myself caring much about anyone. The lead role was played by John Travolta. His performance was, I thought, uneven. And the truth is that the movie didn't really hold my attention. There were times when it became little more than background noise because, frankly, it just wasn't that interesting. It desperately needed better pacing, and a better flow to the story. (3/10)
To be blunt, this isn't a great movie. It paints a picture of life in organized crime, but to me it seemed poorly put together, with no real flow or over-arching narrative; things just being thrown together sometimes with little rhyme or reason. There isn't really much in the way of character development. We get the point that we're watching movie about a bunch of mobsters, but I can't honestly say that I found myself caring much about anyone. The lead role was played by John Travolta. His performance was, I thought, uneven. And the truth is that the movie didn't really hold my attention. There were times when it became little more than background noise because, frankly, it just wasn't that interesting. It desperately needed better pacing, and a better flow to the story. (3/10)
I actually enjoyed this movie. It is flawed in the sense that it is really one sided and tends to glorify John Gotti instead of giving a warts and all depiction of his rise and fall in the Gambino family. To enjoy this movie you can't come into it cold, I think I enjoyed it more than most as I knew a lot of the history going into this and was familiar with the people and events depicted in the film. I think a person not familiar with John Gotti, Sammy Gravano, Frank De Cicco, the Gambino family and the other five families in New York would come out of this frustrated as this movie doesn't lay the groundwork, present their characters effectively or explain the relationships within the five families sufficient to tell a coherent story. In spite of the flaws I enjoyed this film and enjoyed John Travolta's performance.
A couple of months ago I saw the trailer for Kevin Connolly (Entourage) directed Gotti, starring John Travolta (American Crime Story) as the lead, and I immediately thought of Jared Leto as The Joker in Suicide Squad. The trailer did the actual movie no justice, and made the film look like the bad reviews of it would be justified. However, while Gotti will not make its presence felt during Oscar season, there are certainly worse things you can do with an hour and forty.
Alongside Travolta as Gotti, Kelly Preston (Travolta's wife in real life) stars as his wife Victoria, and Spencer Rocco Lofranco (Unbroken) and Chris Mulkey (Whiplash) hold their own in supporting roles. The movie itself documents Gotti's early beginnings coming up in the Gambino crime family, the death of his son after being hit by a car (Travolta and Preston acting out their grief in these scenes felt very real after the two recently lost a son themselves), and his ultimate incarceration, death, and culminates with the legal troubles of his first born son, John A. Gotti.
The problem with this movie was not its content, which was about average but nowhere near worth the poor reviews it has received thus far. The problem is for starters, there is nothing new to be learned by sitting through this movie. Gotti already had a film in 1996, starring Armand Assante, and it was great. There was virtually no new information from this version which I didn't already know from watching Assante twenty-two years ago. Plus, unless you're Lyndon Baines Johnson (Woody Harrelson in LBJ, Bryan Cranston in All the Way, Tom Wilkinson in Selma, and Liev Schreiber in The Butler all killed, I know this is highly off topic but watch all of these films today, you're welcome) you don't need more than one biopic. I would recommend the original Gotti to this version 10/10 times.
An additional problem with this film is the genre itself, namely the Italian Mafia. In a society where dominating male characters are currently not being heavily shopped the timing of this film seemed off. Also in terms of films depicting the Italian Mafia, there is nowhere to go but down. While loyal fans of the genre like myself wait patiently for the next Goodfellas to hit the screens, or the next Sopranos to grace my television set, there will be dozen's of Gotti's to ultimately come up short. I could be wrong, but it is likely we will be waiting for a long time for the resuscitation this genre of movie desperately needs. Thanks for reading.
Alongside Travolta as Gotti, Kelly Preston (Travolta's wife in real life) stars as his wife Victoria, and Spencer Rocco Lofranco (Unbroken) and Chris Mulkey (Whiplash) hold their own in supporting roles. The movie itself documents Gotti's early beginnings coming up in the Gambino crime family, the death of his son after being hit by a car (Travolta and Preston acting out their grief in these scenes felt very real after the two recently lost a son themselves), and his ultimate incarceration, death, and culminates with the legal troubles of his first born son, John A. Gotti.
The problem with this movie was not its content, which was about average but nowhere near worth the poor reviews it has received thus far. The problem is for starters, there is nothing new to be learned by sitting through this movie. Gotti already had a film in 1996, starring Armand Assante, and it was great. There was virtually no new information from this version which I didn't already know from watching Assante twenty-two years ago. Plus, unless you're Lyndon Baines Johnson (Woody Harrelson in LBJ, Bryan Cranston in All the Way, Tom Wilkinson in Selma, and Liev Schreiber in The Butler all killed, I know this is highly off topic but watch all of these films today, you're welcome) you don't need more than one biopic. I would recommend the original Gotti to this version 10/10 times.
An additional problem with this film is the genre itself, namely the Italian Mafia. In a society where dominating male characters are currently not being heavily shopped the timing of this film seemed off. Also in terms of films depicting the Italian Mafia, there is nowhere to go but down. While loyal fans of the genre like myself wait patiently for the next Goodfellas to hit the screens, or the next Sopranos to grace my television set, there will be dozen's of Gotti's to ultimately come up short. I could be wrong, but it is likely we will be waiting for a long time for the resuscitation this genre of movie desperately needs. Thanks for reading.
Travolta's Gotti is way too Travolta. No imagination can turn Travolta into Gotti.
The writing was lazy. The movie was bloated and bland.
Screw that! 1/10
The writing was lazy. The movie was bloated and bland.
Screw that! 1/10
The filmmakers had absolutely no idea what they wanted out of this movie. You can tell it took 44 producers and 8 years to make. Who was the protagonist? What style did they want to adopt? Is it a documentary? A character piece? A chronology of John Gotti's life? I couldn't tell. There was 4 time lines happening at once. Way to many names and places. It was simply boring and had no suspense. However, Travolta's performance wasn't bad, the script was. He definitly did the best he could with what he was given. Long story short, I have no more affection or knowledge of the Gotti family now than I did before the movie. Go watch the Sopranos instead.
I love the 10 star review raving about John Travolta's dismal performance here. I would bet you ten to one that these are Scientologists/
- poetcomic1
- Dec 26, 2018
- Permalink
As an Italian ( an Italian of Italy, not an Italian American), I feel offended, disgusted as well as ashamed by this movie and by those who directed and produced it. Not only is this movie poorly directed and boring but also the way it defends Gotti is simply shameful, almost stockholm syndrome-like. I feel "sorry" for Travolta for he is a good actor who need more chances, but this movie is terrible and it deserves the commercial and critical failure it had.
- simonegreg
- Sep 15, 2018
- Permalink
Overall, I don't think that the acting or presentation of the film is anywhere near as bad as others have stated. However, the movie deserves the lowest score for downplaying this murderous thugs role, and in the end presenting he and his mob son as victims.
- FlashCallahan
- Jul 15, 2018
- Permalink
Perhaps the most boring and laziest mobster type film i ever saw some people found enterteinmant in it but not me
- marmar-69780
- Nov 2, 2019
- Permalink
This is occurring with too much regularity lately. Average or even good movies that are being slammed by the critics and media for one PC reason or another. When you see 5 point gaps between the critics ratings and general audience always ignore the critics. In fact always ignore the critics anyways. Sometimes they try to skew the regular voters ratings but the masses normally override that garbage. Not on Gotti however. The giveaway is when you see mainly ones or tens in the voting distribution and not many in between. That is the case for Gotti. I thought it was an average but interesting movie and reflected on Gotti somewhat accurately.
- bnemec-929-478125
- Jun 25, 2018
- Permalink
Directing - 0
Travolta acting - 0
This movie has 0 direction. If I were Travolta I would be ashamed of calling that acting. My kids high school drama class produces better actors many times over and these are not trained professionals - just kids.
I will be honest. I never watched Entourage so I am clueless who the director was until after I watched this film and looked him up. I can only say the guy needs to stick to acting (if he can act, again I have never heard of em) but he simply cannot direct. This film is not worth your time. Taking a nap would be a much better alternative.
This movie has 0 direction. If I were Travolta I would be ashamed of calling that acting. My kids high school drama class produces better actors many times over and these are not trained professionals - just kids.
I will be honest. I never watched Entourage so I am clueless who the director was until after I watched this film and looked him up. I can only say the guy needs to stick to acting (if he can act, again I have never heard of em) but he simply cannot direct. This film is not worth your time. Taking a nap would be a much better alternative.
- disdainisme
- Jan 6, 2019
- Permalink
This movie is actually very entertaining and not nearly as bad as critics suggest. Travolta does a great job, minus the cheesy open and closing narrative scenes. Those should have been cut. Otherwise he was really good.
I can't understand why critics hated this movie so much, even if not historically accurate, it was entertaining. And it gave some interesting perspective on what life might have been like inside Gottis family. See it and judge yourself. It was no worse than at least half the other movies I have seen this year.
I can't understand why critics hated this movie so much, even if not historically accurate, it was entertaining. And it gave some interesting perspective on what life might have been like inside Gottis family. See it and judge yourself. It was no worse than at least half the other movies I have seen this year.
This may have had a very troubled birth but there is no denying the commitment of everyone involved. A superb biopic, a little unevenly told but still a great film if your already familiar with the epic tale of Gotti. Nicely compacted in under 2 hours I suspect if will improve with age, maybe not your traditional gangster movie but definitely worth viewing for fans of the genre or history buffs. Travolta gives a highly underrated performance.
- johncjferry
- Aug 23, 2018
- Permalink