Not What I Expected

Rating: 4/10 (21 June 1999)

Saturday Night Fever was a disappointment. I expected Travolta's character to be more ... interesting, to say the least. He somehow never gets past being shallow and vain, except for the anger over his friends about the dance contest. But in a way, that was vanity, too. The cliches about Catholics were tired and overwrung -- I thought the thread of the Catholic girl and her boyfriend was particularly pointless, unless the whole goal of the movie was to get in as many anti-Catholic jabs as possible.
Saturday Night Fever had a lot of potential, but sadly missed the mark and survives only as a specimen, interesting as a study of the times but good for little else. Even the dancing was a disappointment.