Travolting

From Pulp Fiction in 1994 to Bolt in 2008, Jeff and Stuart recap the past 14 years of John Travolta's comeback phase. From the sudden sharp rise to A-list movie star, his Icarus moment with Battlefield Earth, his attempted rebound films, his Disney Trilogy, to the inevitable fall. The boys have a discussion about where Travolta's been, where he is, and where he's going.

Bolt, a fun-loving classical tale about a dog that, since a pup, had been raised in the film industry as a superhero dog. The catch? The filmmakers make the dog actually believe that it is a real life superhero. Joined by fellow film-industry worker Ang Gardner, the three talk about the ramifications of such a choice. Is this humane? Does this dog deserve a better? Should Bolt have died at the end...

You've seen him be a 50's greaser, you've seen him be a disco dancer. Now... in the year of our lord 2007, get ready to witness our favorite man dawn on the wig, the legs, the cheeks, the ass, and the lips; as John Travolta presents the silver screen as the legendary Edna Turnblad in the hit musical, Hairspray.

It's 2007, Don Elmore (early 50's), just got home from a hard day at work. His two young boys, Stuart (12) and Mathew (9) have been home from school for a while. It's a Friday, and he promised the boys that they'd watch a movie together. So they drive to the movie theater. What's playing you might ask? Spiderman 3? Nah. The Game Plan with Dwayne Johnson? Too childish. No Country for Old Men? Too M...

It's the late 1940's, Detective Elmer Robinson (Travolta) and Charlie Stromboli (Gandolfini) are heavy hitting detectives on the prowl looking for the infamous "Lonely Hearts Killers" (Hayek & Leto). Jeff and Stuart take a look into this period piece tale with awe and wonder, as they ask themselves the question: "Couldn't we have just watched Public Enemies?"

SPACE!! The final frontier, these are the voyages of podcast, Travolting. It's 73-episode mission, to explore John Travolta. To seek out old and new films and puzzling performances. To boldy go, where no podcaster has gone before... It's a documentary about the moon landing and Travolta voices Jim Irwin in it.

Happy New Year folks! Don't you just hate sequels? They're almost never as good as the original, they reuse bits, ruin your favorite characters, sloppy writing; it's all bad. But we're all gonna 'Be Cool' as we give this sequel a shot-- oh wait... breaking news... Vince Vaughn commits a war crime in this movie? Oh boy....

You folks have probably figured out by now which types of movies our hosts enjoy. For Jeff, it's the silly, not too serious, low-brow but thoughtful movie like Boris and Natasha. For Stuart, it's the heartfelt, earnest, inspirational, thought-provoking movies like A Love Song for Bobby Long. Well get ready for another "Stuart" film, Ladder 49, where Jeff unfortunately may have made one too many fi...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of our Travolting listeners! Brace yourselves for our very first (and probably only) Christmas special episode! This episode is full of laughs, jolly, and some unexpected guests that bring some surprising gifts to the podcast. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

So let's be real for a second. We've been hitting a rough patch with Travolta lately. Battlefield Earth was the iceberg, and the Travolta's been sinking for a while. But... in our deepest and darkest moment, a light shines through... a light that gives us hope that one day, John Travolta may be able to come back to our graces and give us the life that we've always wanted with him. That tiny ray of...

Remember the early Marvel days? Before the MCU? Back when X-Men, Spiderman and Blade ruled the superhero industry? Where there's always this one sleeper film that not a lot of people talk about, and to be honest... the viewing experience can be quite a punishment. That's right, on this episode, Jeff, Stuart and special guess David Wilczynski talk about the 2004 vigilante film, The Punisher. Gun sh...

Imagine you're watching a movie and it's got a lot of twists, and then there's the big twist at the end and you think you've got the whole movie figured out, but then there's another twist! After that twist you're a little confused but maybe you could piece things together but then after that THERE'S ANOTHER TWIST! AND BEFORE YOU COULD EVEN GRASP WHAT MATERIAL THE UNIVERSE IS MADE OUT OF THERE'S S...

On today's episode of Travolting; Stu, Jeff and our very shagadelic friend Alex Wilson get shagalicious with this shagomatic cinematic masterpiece in which John Travolta graces for about 4 seconds (we counted). Oh behave baby... AH THANK YOU!

In this mystery thriller, John Travolta faces off against who very well may be his most menacing and scariest villain of all, Vince Vaughn. Remember him from all of his other horror slasher roles like the Wedding Crashers, The Break-Up, and Couples Retreat? Well get ready to see that side of Vaughn once again in the 2001 film, Domestic Disturbance.

Insert Hacking Montage . Just kidding, the entire movie is one big hacking montage! Join Jeff, Stuart and special guest Sam Kelly as they have a wild time talking about the 2001 John Travolta/Hugh Jackman action packed film, Swordfish.

This one's about Travolta trying to hack the lottery with Lisa Kudrow, oh and Tim Roth is in this. I know what you're thinking, "does Jeff have another 'friend' over?", well the answer is yes, but not who you'd expect.

Travolta's had a few of mishaps... okay maybe more than a few... but the one that takes the cake, the crème de la crème, the flop of all flops, is the one and only.... Battlefield Earth. Get ready for the hair ranking you've all been waiting for. Also Becca chose to guest star ON HER OWN FREE WILL WE DID NOT FORCE HER.

Yep.... we're covering this....

Take flight as Jeff and Stuart present to you a narrative work of literary fiction written by our man, Travolta. Starring eight-year-old, starry-eyed, Jeff; a boy who is experiencing a dream come true as he flies across the sky in his magical kingdom, airplanes.

At the end of the millennium, our boy, John Travolta fills out another 90's criteria film: the corrupt military film. Brought to you by the same director who directed Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video, directs this serious movie about misogyny in the military.

Picture this: you're in fourth grade. It's the spring semester, around January or February, might be a Tuesday or a Wednesday. The teacher gathers the class to all sit in a semi-circle on the carpet flooring. That's when the librarian you never see rolls out.... THE CART. The cart with the TV on it. She puts in a VHS tape, what's in that VHS tape you ask? It's the 1999 kids TV film, Our Friend, Ma...

A Few Good Men, In The Name of the Father, Philadelphia; all astounding courtroom dramas of the 90's; and of course, our boy, John Travolta, at the height of his powers couldn't leave his rise in the 90's without doing one. Join Jeff and Stuart for a "civil" discussion on the 1998 film, A Civil Action.

Me: "Hey mom, what was that movie that literally every single male actor in the late 90's were in? Mom: "The Thin Red Line, honey." Me: "Was John Travolta in that movie?" Mom: "Yes, for three minutes. Why do you ask?"

Here at Travolting, we take nearly every Travolta appearance incredibly seriously, even if that only amounts to a total of 15 seconds and three lines of dialogue, which is what you get in the 1998 mockumentary, Welcome to Hollywood.

So folks, you know how Jeff loves to do Bill Clinton impressions? You know how he's like... kinda okay at it? Well you can imagine how excited he was to cover a movie where John Travolta plays a knock-off Bill Clinton. Stuart certainly got the full dosage in this one.