Gotti: O Chefe da Máfia

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.

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)

I love it. I will watch it again once I've got more time. Thanks for the hardworking.

"Gotti" is not as bad as advertised. Do you like John Travolta? If so, this is his picture, and it would have been better if he had more control over it - particularly the editing. "Gotti" does not flow, it is episodic - choppy, as though several Gotti blackouts were slapped together, which offloads suspense and vastly reduces tension. Add to that the random addition of a loud music score. I say 'random' because the music is a bunch of '80's hits which do not provide context and weren't all hits. Plus, the music track was so loud as be intrusive.

Travolta carries the picture, and a big mistake was made in selecting the actor for the Junior Gotti part. Spencer LoFranco makes a nice appearance but lacks acting ability and does this movie no favors. The rest of the cast is good and come off as credible 'gangstas'. It is a good - but not great - picture which relies a lot on dialogue and needed more action and better editing.

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.