MOVIE REVIEWS

Based on the story as told by the younger John A. Gotti in his book, this tells the tale of his legendary father's gangland exploits as he worked his way up from New York's poverty row to head up the Gambino crime family and become one of the city's wealthiest and most influential citizens. The opening scenario depicts the original John Gotti (John Travolta) doing a piece to camera about the delights of New York, and sadly that sets the tone for the rest of this rather weak biopic. The timelines are all over the place, and the historical nature of the man's life robs the film of any jeopardy. Travolta is nowhere near his best and though quite hunky, Spencer Lofranco (John Jnr.) looks like he accidentally strayed from the adjacent “Waltons" set next door. For a mobster movie, it is remarkably un-menacing, wordy and sterile with a distinct lack of oomph from a supporting cast that really just looked like they were there for the payday. This is really rather poor and tells us precious little about what made this man tick but might have done wonders for polo-neck sales.

It's kind of all over the place. Only occasionally are you sure what year it is, only occasionally do you become familiar with a character. Even his son Frankie s accident plays out like a footnote. And that's what this is, a lot of footnotes pushed together with no context to really strung them together. It's a mess.