John Travolta’s High Rollers Falls Flat in Laughable Heist

John Travolta has starred in some of Hollywood’s most iconic films, including Pulp Fiction, Grease, and Saturday Night Fever, but he’s also had more than a few misses. His latest, High Rollers, unfortunately, lands in the latter category.

Failed Cash Out Sequel

A spiritual sequel to 2024’s Cash Out, this follow-up that is far from making it on Netflix’s list of best gambling movies, sees Travolta once again playing Mason Goddard, a career thief now drawn into a high-stakes heist inside a flashy New Orleans casino. 

The catch? His wife Amelia (Gina Gershon, doing her best with what she’s given) has been abducted by an international criminal named Salazar, who demands that Mason and his oddball crew steal a fortune from a hotel suite safe.

Mason’s team includes his not-so-bright brother Shawn (Lukas Haas), tech expert Link (Natali Yura), and other stock characters played by Quavo and Noel Gugliemi. 

Swen Temmel plays the muscle, Caras, and Demián Castro appears as casino magnate Zade Black. Their mission takes them to the Scarlet Pearl, a casino that’s meant to evoke luxury but looks like it was styled by a discount furniture warehouse.

Film Critic: Even the Name “Sounds Trashy”

“Even the name of this fictional gaming facility sounds trashy,” wrote critic Leslie Felperin. 

“When we see its interior — all lurid carpeting and easily wipeable soft furnishings — it looks less like Monte Carlo’s finest than the kind of seedy regional gambling den that the producers could hire cheaply.”, Felperin added.

Travolta, notably bald and seemingly unbothered, leads the chaos with a straight face, but High Rollers offers little in the way of charm, suspense, or even basic coherence. 

Felperin didn’t mince words in her assessment: “High Rollers is a heart-slowing work of staggering stupidity and charmlessness, ineptly made and quite frankly dull except when its flaws become so egregious you can’t help but guffaw.”

The film was shot in part at the actual Scarlet Pearl Casino along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast in 2023, and a third installment has already wrapped, though whether anyone is shouting for it remains doubtful.

IMDb users also gave the movie a dismal 3.8/10, while Google reviews average just 1.6 out of 5. As Mary Kassel at Screen Rant put it, the film is “neither fun nor engaging” and left her “wondering when it would end.”

Over the years, Travolta has received 11 Golden Raspberry Awards nominations. In 2001, he won Worst Actor and Worst Screen Couple with “anyone sharing the screen with him” for his Battlefield Earth performance.

A decade later, he was nominated for Worst Actor of the Decade for the same movie, alongside Domestic Disturbance, Lucky Numbers, Old Dogs, and Swordfish.

He also won the Worst Actor Razzie in 2020 for both The Fanatic and Trading Point. Other Travolta flicks receiving Razzie nods include Staying Alive, Two of a Kind, Perfect, The Experts, and Gotti.

In a career filled with highs and infamous lows, High Rollers may just find itself nestled among Travolta’s most forgettable flops.