Gotti (2018)

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

I'll let the NY Post review do the talking. https://nypost.com/2018/06/15/gotti-flick-is-the-worst-mob-movie-of-all-time/

 

"‘Gotti’ flick is the worst mob movie of all-time""

 

"'...the long-awaited biopic about the Gambino crime boss' rise from made man to top dog took four directors, 44 producers and eight years to make. It shows. The finished product belongs in a cement bucket at the bottom of the river.'"

 

"Travolta, who’s made a career out of Italian stereotypes, obviously thought the Dapper Don would be his Don Corleone. It’s his Chef Boy­ardee."

 

Other notes:

• Nick Cassavetes and Joe Johnston were then also attached at different points to direct, as were Al Pacino, Lindsay Lohan and Ben Foster to star in various roles
  
• Joe Pesci was cast as Angelo Ruggiero early in development and gained 30 pounds in order to properly portray him. After having his salary cut and being recast as Lucchese underboss Anthony Casso, he sued Fiore Films for $3 million; the case was settled out of court.
  
• It was originally doing to be direct-to-VOD.
  

 

Guys, you've jumped on the Travolta Train before. If you don't take a ride on this piece of garbage, to you I say, "“whatsamattayou?!”"

 

[Roonami 11]

Looks like it made the prestigious 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

Looks like it made the prestigious 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Yes indeed, but this also appears to be one where the critics and audience disagree by a wide margin. 75% audience approval. Not the 91-point discrepancy of Rad, but still a wide moat.

 

On another note, this Gotti from 1996 appears to be much more watchable. I call for an HDTGM spin-off that chronicles films that are similar in nature, but one is good while the other is a huge turd.

 

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gotti

[Roonami 11]

Yes indeed, but this also appears to be one where the critics and audience disagree by a wide margin. 75% audience approval. Not the 91-point discrepancy of Rad, but still a wide moat.

 

On another note, this Gotti from 1996 appears to be much more watchable. I call for an HDTGM spin-off that chronicles films that are similar in nature, but one is good while the other is a huge turd.

 

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gotti

 

Someone uploaded it in full to YT.

[grudlian. 4725]

Yes indeed, but this also appears to be one where the critics and audience disagree by a wide margin. 75% audience approval. Not the 91-point discrepancy of Rad, but still a wide moat.

I've seen talk online that the audience score is manipulated by fake accounts. The accusation stems from the polarizing difference between critics and audience but an unusually high number of reviews. Gotti has 400+ reviews but only made $2 million. Incredibles 2 has 1500+ reviews but made $269 million. It's lead some people to question why Gotti is getting 40 times the response of Incredibles 2 (which I picked randomly). It certainly seems suspicious.

 

Rotten Tomatoes insists the score is accurate and from active accounts. Obviously, they can't admit abuse because then their entire credibility is destroyed which ruins any user score and functionally killing the site. But we know vote brigading happens and it happens on Rotten Tomatoes for sure. Ghostbusters has a not particularly hidden group tanking its score and The Last Jedi has people openly admitting to lowering its score (absurdly high number of user reviews for both). So, I'm not buying Rotten Tomatoes' story.

[RyanSz 3140]

Since I love watching trainwreck films and have always wanted to watch a movie with the theater to myself, I have been looking at getting a ticket to this at my local theater. Yet every time I have looked at available seats, there are at least three seats already reserved, by whom I am hoping are people hoping for an empty theater like me.

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

I've seen talk online that the audience score is manipulated by fake accounts. The accusation stems from the polarizing difference between critics and audience but an unusually high number of reviews. Gotti has 400+ reviews but only made $2 million. Incredibles 2 has 1500+ reviews but made $269 million. It's lead some people to question why Gotti is getting 40 times the response of Incredibles 2 (which I picked randomly). It certainly seems suspicious.

 

Rotten Tomatoes insists the score is accurate and from active accounts. Obviously, they can't admit abuse because then their entire credibility is destroyed which ruins any user score and functionally killing the site. But we know vote brigading happens and it happens on Rotten Tomatoes for sure. Ghostbusters has a not particularly hidden group tanking its score and The Last Jedi has people openly admitting to lowering its score (absurdly high number of user reviews for both). So, I'm not buying Rotten Tomatoes' story.

I had not looked at the number of reviews, but it looks like you're on to something. Maybe JT got some Sea Org members to do overtime work?

 

The audience score is down to 59%. Interestingly, the Rotten Tomatoes link under "External links" is gone (still in References) but the slightly more favorable IMDB link still exists.

 

https://en.wikipedia...ore_controversy

[grudlian. 4725]

I had not looked at the number of reviews, but it looks like you're on to something. Maybe JT got some Sea Org members to do overtime work?

 

The audience score is down to 59%. Interestingly, the Rotten Tomatoes link under "External links" is gone (still in References) but the slightly more favorable IMDB link still exists.

 

https://en.wikipedia...ore_controversy

Interesting that the scores made it to Wikipedia. I read an article just throwing out voter manipulation but hadn't really looked into it because I don't care about Gotti. But it seems pretty obvious if you look at number of reviews that someone is doing it.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if someone (or a group of someones) maintain accounts just to sell to studios for reviews. If every single positive review is fake (unlikely), Thats only mid 200s for fake accounts which probably isn't noticeable but enough to seeing a movie from rotten to fresh. It's only noticeable because Gotti made so little money.

[RyanSz 3140]

I always take the audience poll with a grain of salt, especially on RT as there have been many cases where both pro and con sides for a film have used it to trying and influence the score. Saving Christmas was the only one I remember where the star of the film was actively telling people to stuff the ballots when Kirk Cameron posted a video on Youtube telling Christians to pump up the rating, getting it as high as the mid 90s, but when he then had the balls to brag about it, the internet responded in kind by sending overwhelming negative reviews, causing it to tank the crowd score. This then led to Cameron calling them out for being trolls who voted on a film they didn't see, when he had started it by telling people who had not seen the film to give it positive votes. The recent Ghostbusters also had IMDB do a complete overhaul of their rating system as the film had hundreds of votes for both 10 and 1 star weeks before the movie even came out.

[Roonami 11]

Since I love watching trainwreck films and have always wanted to watch a movie with the theater to myself, I have been looking at getting a ticket to this at my local theater. Yet every time I have looked at available seats, there are at least three seats already reserved, by whom I am hoping are people hoping for an empty theater like me.

 

Sounds like potential for a beautiful friendship.

[grudlian. 4725]

I always take the audience poll with a grain of salt, especially on RT as there have been many cases where both pro and con sides for a film have used it to trying and influence the score. Saving Christmas was the only one I remember where the star of the film was actively telling people to stuff the ballots when Kirk Cameron posted a video on Youtube telling Christians to pump up the rating, getting it as high as the mid 90s, but when he then had the balls to brag about it, the internet responded in kind by sending overwhelming negative reviews, causing it to tank the crowd score. This then led to Cameron calling them out for being trolls who voted on a film they didn't see, when he had started it by telling people who had not seen the film to give it positive votes. The recent Ghostbusters also had IMDB do a complete overhaul of their rating system as the film had hundreds of votes for both 10 and 1 star weeks before the movie even came out.

I'll have to see if I still have the picture on my computer when I get home. I took a screenshot of the reviews on opening day broken down by gender. The results are not surprising.

[RyanSz 3140]

Holy shit I've started watching this on Prime and it needs to be covered, if only for the fact that Gotti is portrayed as a kind, man of the people in the film. Surprisingly, the movie is actually pretty good with historical events, but it is bogged down in over the top acting and the fact that Travolta either has an uber thick Long Island accent or just his normal voice depending on his mood, then you have the actor playing his son, who has zero accent. There are also some odd historical things like during a block party in the 80s having a song from Pitbull playing and one of Gotti's longtime friends had a falling out with him due to him being caught on wiretap by the feds, but in the film it's shown as it was because of an unsanctioned and failed hit on a rival. It's weird that a movie that does so much to be historically accurate, can make such a blatant mistake.

[RyanSz 3140]

Having finished this now, as it's taken a few runs I wholeheartedly feel this has to be covered, because not only does this movie begin and end with Travolta as Gotti breaking the fourth wall and preparing the viewer for him narrating his life story, this ends with a closing title card about how the government was basically railroading Gotti and his son by using criminals as their witnesses in exchange for lighter sentences, the movie leaving out that those guys were doing most, if not, all of that on the orders of Gotti. I can't remember for the life of me where a biopic acknowledges the subject is a criminal psycho, but also a misunderstood good guy.

[mrrichardson 5]

I had such high hopes for this film. There have been so many epic gangster flicks over the years, that I thought this one could follow in that tradition. You have this charismatic, narcissistic, street wise, but foolish lead character, that should've been a rich well of depth, and instead it just falls entirely flat. 

There are roles that Travolta plays well, but this just isn't one of them. Terrible film, that seems to drag on forever.