Gotti (2018) Review

Gotti (2018) Review

 When going through Netflix I came across this film and decided to give it a watch and here is my review for the film Gotti. The premise of the film shows the life of the notorious gangster Joe Gotti as he rises up the criminal empire in New York. 

Main Character

John Travolta plays the titular character in the film and I am happy to report that this has been the best Travolta has been in many years. He actually has the old charm and charisma back and it really feels like he commits to the role and that it suits him perfectly. For a few years it has felt like Travolta has not done much good but this performance shows that he can still do it and hopefully we will see more performances like this in the future. 

Supporting Characters 

Unfortunatley, this film is totally about Travolta. Nobody else gets any time to shine as a character and it really feels like there are so many people in this film that you have to track that you end up not caring about any of them and they are just generic gangsters. The main one is Gotti's son but he is a generic character too, there isn't much to him and maybe he could have done with being played by a better actor.

Story

The story is like most gangster films as it is pretty interesting seeing Gotti rise through the ranks and really become the head of the crime family. However, as mentioned it is hard to get invested in some aspects of the story as the characters aren't given any real screen time. It comes across as b grade version of The Irishman where as I think it would have been better as a TV Series even though the obvious comparisons to The Sopranos would have been there.

Script

The script has some good dramatic moments in and dramatic dialogue that fit the mobster life well and it works for this film. Though the attempt at humour doesn't really work and honestly there is nothing here that really stands out to me and makes it feel like what it is very average.

Style

The style of the film does have moments that are graphic and feel like a gangster film should feel like so that is a good thing. However, as I mentioned before this film isn't paced very well at all, there are plenty of things that aren't explained and it just feels rushed throughout.

Overall

Overall, this is a very average gangster film, there are some good things about the film, Travolta's performance being the best but it isn't worth a watch and there are much better Gangster films/TV Shows out there. 

Rating - 5/10