“Gotti” has quickly got a reputation as one of the worst crime movies ever made. While I disagree with that classification, I understand where people are coming from. This is a bland mob movie with no clear structure. It seems like more than 100 minutes of John Travolta (“Saturday Night Fever”, “Broken Arrow”) standing around acting tough.

“Gotti” begins with what I can only assume is the ghost of the deceased John Gotti (Travolta) talking about his life and legacy. The film then darts around the timeline of his life like we are watching a “Doctor Who” episode. We see Gotti become the head of the Gambino crime family and his eventual incarceration.

Travolta looks like he’s trying to be the new Marlon Brando from “The Godfather”. He is not entirely bad in the role but he just looks like he is trying too hard and his performance ends up coming across as rather unnatural. I did not know anything about John Gotti prior to watching this film and I feel that I learned very little from watching it. The movie never really shows us anything about how he ran the Gambino family, we just see a lot of talking. The other characters are all forgettable.

Watch a crime movie classic such as “Goodfellas” or “Scarface” and then watch “Gotti” and you will realise where this movie went so wrong. There is just no focus here and we are left confused by what is being put in front of us. I’m sure that there could be a decent film about the life of John Gotti but this movie is way off. It’s not as aggressively bad as some critics have made it out to be but “Gotti” is also far from being a good movie. I recommend that you watch “Goodfellas” instead of this.