Battlefield Girth

Hanks & Gere should thank this man?

John Travolta is revolting—sensationally bad actor (except in Saturday Night Fever), closet case, pretends his son isn't autistic because that doesn't fit with his world view as a devout Scientologist...what more can he do to annoy me?

He can give an interview in which he laments parts he turned down and say that rejecting Green Mile "gave...Tom Hanks a career!" I'm pretty sure Tom Hanks's movie career kicked into high gear with 1988's Big, and he was bouncing back from some missteps by 1992, when he hit it out of the park with A League Of Their Own, followed by the smash Sleepless In Seattle in 1993 and the career-transforming, Oscar-winning one-two punch of Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. Green Mile? Please!

In the same piece, he says he rejected Chicago (which, along with his refusal to do An Officer And A Gentleman, "gave Richard Gere...a career!") because, "It was a lot of women who hated men and I like women who like men. (laughs) The stage show was kind of vicious but the movie had a heart." UGH. The movie sucked and I will never get over why everyone loves it—Queen Latifah is devoid of acting ability and can not sing, and Catherine Zeta Jones was so bad she almost had to win the Oscar for it. But regardless of my own, highly  personal take, on that movie (which Premiere Magazine did recently note was one of the least deserving Best Picture Oscars of all time...), just to hear him say that Chicago was about man-haters and this offends him in some way is so infuriating.

I guess he just can't understand anybody who can't say, "I've never met a man I didn't like."

Comments

[Christopher]

I thought I was the only person in the world who likes musicals but hated the movie of Chicago. (I don't know for certain that you like musicals, but I always assume that anyone with great taste does.) And why the hell didn't Harvey get to play Edna in Hairspray so we had to be subjected to this asshat's weirdo interpretation?

[joeditt]

Hmmm ... unfortunately, Im not sure if I can say Travolta's a bad actor. No idea if it depends on his German dubbing voice (I'm an Austrian and never heard Travolta himself SPEAKING, only singing). But my impression of his characters shown on Austrian tv is not so bad - they're either surprisingly correct, or else assholes so tricky one hardly can like them and, after the movie's over, tends to think T. may find it funny to play them but in real life also wouldn't estimate them.

And that puzzles me. Because, on the other hand, I feel his real self is close to those tricky, conniving, spiteful scumbags.

By the way, I suspect he's too intelligent (or thinks he is) to really believe in that Scientology crap. I rather assume he gets paid in some way for his pr job, and perhaps enjoys certain powerful connections. Or maybe thought so in the first place, and finding out things are - fortunately - not that great for him, reacted by ... well, the first photo shows the result. Pics from the Oscar celebration 2008 were even more impressive, showing him with a neck (or a flabby something going down - not really steep - from where things like a mandible and a nape should be, his clothes hiding something that could be twice ... well, adiposis - caused by whatever - is no justification for discriminatory jokes).

By the way, how's this Mr. Hyde's mental (provided there are remains of something like a mind) godson Tom Top Gun doing? No matter how much damage he's causing, to me he rather appears more like a victim, and Travolta rather a calculating, manipulatory perpetrator.

Is that your impression, too?