 |
| John Travolta in Urban Cowboy YEAR: 1980 |
Another soundtrack film with John Travolta after disco and 1950's rock paid off, James Bridges' URBAN COWBOY is a character-driven, intentionally plotless melodrama with a ripped-muscular Scott Glenn as an ex-con who winds up Travolta’s rival: adding Pseudo-Sport to the genre involving a mechanical bull, bumping and grinding inside an immense Texas barroom where the title's first half derives throughout a beer-soaked, Country Music blaring, wooden-neon interior.
Before the opening credits, Travolta’s a small town guy with a nice suburban family, a cowboy hat, an unfitting beard: And thanks to his uncle, after landing a Houston-set tough guy oil rig gig and bedding down two models at the hot-spot, Gilley's, he’s quickly married to pretty barfly Debra Winger who's really more a bickering best friend, providing the two affable leads an old fashion chemistry that’s bound to fall apart at the seams...
 |
| Scott Glenn knocks a trailer's door in Urban Cowboy Rating: ***1/2 |
And things really begin as their relationship sours: When she learns from Glenn how to ride the bull, and he (Travolta) finds selfish solace with poor little rich girl, Madelyn Smith (she's actually a much better fit), the movie finds its groove...
With non-stop tunes readymade to both backup the story and serve a roman chorus to the inevitable, predictable conclusion, this is a country music soap opera celebrating city/country life with greasy fingers: Only Travolta doesn't exactly look like a bonafide Texan (Dennis Quaid was originally considered); and his sexist, wife-slapping jerk seems contrived to fit the usual good-old-boy cliché. But he puts his whole shallow heart into the matter, which is exactly enough here.
 |
| Scott Glenn and James Gammon in URBAN COWBOY |
 |
| The "real cowboy" Scott Glenn looks on in URBAN COWBOY |
 |
| A rider bites the bull in URBAN COWBOY |
 |
| Jessie La Rive (interviewed here), Debra Winger & Cooper Huckabee watch John Travolta huck food at Scott Glenn |
 |
| Future FUNNY FARM Madolyn Smith as the girl that deserved better in URBAN COWBOY |
 |
| Debra Winger and John Travolta in URBAN COWBOY |
Robyn Hilton enters into an eclectic exploitation comedy career in Wonder Women circa 1973 As mentioned a few posts ago, ROBYN HILTON, b...
year: 1978 cast: Allen Garfield, Leif Garrett, Kathleen Lloyd, Tony Alva, Pam Kenneally rating: ***1/2 Although promoted as a Leif Garr...
Kari Michaelsen in Saturday the 14th year: 1982 In LOVE AT FIRST BITE, a popular comedy that took the vampire genre by satire, Richard ...
Mary-Louise Weller in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE ANIMAL HOUSE, directed by John Landis and produced by Ivan Reitman, stars John Be...
Robyn Hilton on STARSKY AND HUTCH Model/Actress ROBYN HILTON played Mel Brook's secretary in BLAZING SADDLES and turns up in an epis...
Cornelia Sharpe in BUSTING Year: 1974 Rating: **** Starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake as determined vice cops BUSTING hookers, makin...
Kerri Green and John Candy in SUMMER RENTAL Year: 1985 John Candy, in his first leading role, plays a burnt-out air traffic controller ...
Robyn Hilton in Video Vixens the same year as Blazing Saddles: 1974 The Anthology of Comedic Parodies, already done in several Woody All...
WILLIAM SMITH AS FALCONETTI ON RICH MAN POOR MAN The baddest of all TV bad guys… Matt Dillon’s character in BEAUTIFUL GIRLS calls Antho...
Elizabeth James and Tom Laughlin on equal ground YEAR: 1967 THE BORN LOSERS wasn't supposed to happen but thank God it did since BIL...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.