John Travolta Double Feature : Saturday Night Fever / Staying Alive [DVD-2 Pack]

Saturday Night Fever Saturday Night Fever is one of those movies that comes along and seems to change the cultural temperature in a flash. After the movie's release in 1977, disco ruled the dance floors, and a blow-dried member of a TV-sitcom ensemble became the hottest star in the country. For all that, the story is conventional: a 19-year-old Italian-American from Brooklyn, Tony Manero (John Travolta), works in a humble paint store and lives with his family. After dark, he becomes the polyester-clad stallion of the local nightclub; Tony's brother, a priest, observes that when Tony hits the dance floor, the crowd parts like the Red Sea before Moses. Director John Badham captures the electric connection between music and dance, and also the desperation that lies beneath Tony's ambitions to break out of his limited world.

Staying Alive This notable dud updates the story of Tony Manero (John Travolta), the disco prince from Fever, as he heads across the river to Manhattan and tries to make it as a dancer on Broadway. Someone had the bright idea of handing Staying Alive to Sylvester Stallone, who directed and cowrote the screenplay (and pops up in a shameless two-second cameo). Stallone gives the picture the pumped-up Rocky treatment, and completely misses the dance-floor excitement of Saturday Night Fever. Travolta tries to recapture his signature role, but this is one of the movies that put his career into its pre-Pulp Fiction deep freeze. The action culminates in a laughable Broadway opening night that really should be seen to be disbelieved. --Robert Horton

Region 1 DVDs, NTSC, in English.