Primary Colors (1998)

An engaging political drama directed by Mike Nichols, with plenty of comic moments. John Travolta plays a governor with presidential ambitions. Emma Thompson (with an American accent) plays his wife. And Adrian Lester plays the campaign manager, who tries to hold true to his idealism despite repeated incidents in which he needs to cover up for the governor’s reported transgressions. 

There’s a lot of dialogue, which gives the film extra richness, and it skilfully explores the relationships between the key characters. It’s not surprising to learn that it was adapted from Joe Klein’s loosely fictionalised account of the 1992 Bill Clinton presidential campaign. Emma Thompson even looks a little like Hilary Clinton at times.

Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates and Larry Hagman all co-star, and all are at their best.

Broken Arrow (1996)

Brilliantly silly action thriller directed by John Woo. 

John Travolta and Christian Slater are military pilots testing a stealth plane armed with two nuclear missiles. But Travolta seizes the weapons and holds the world to ransom. The action plays out in the Utah desert (the scenery is stunning), where Travolta is helped by a gang of henchmen and Slater is joined by a friendly park ranger (Samantha Mathis). 

The action is unrelenting. There are plenty of James Bond tropes – a ticking timer on a bomb, fighting on top of a train, macho feuding and plenty of helicopter explosions – but it’s all done with John Woo’s sense of heightened reality. Everything is turned up to 11, with a deliberately absurd element. It’s made even more exciting by Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack, which incorporates motifs from westerns and clanking industrial interludes.

Face/Off (1997)

Absurd body-swap action-thriller directed by John Woo and incorporating elements of sci-fi and horror. 

A criminal (Nic Cage) and an FBI agent (John Travolta) have their faces switched with the use of pioneering technology. Meanwhile, the criminal has planted a bomb somewhere in Los Angeles. 

Cartoonish and unbelievable, Face/Off ends up being possibly the strangest film I’ve ever seen. Cage plays it like a pantomime villain, hamming it up so much that you realise the film is nearly a comedy – and would perhaps have worked better that way. On the plus side, the action sequence involving speedboats is one of the best I’ve ever seen. 

The film doesn't really bother to explore the complex identity questions it hints at: are we "ourselves" (with a consistent being at the core) or are we merely what we look like? It's so ridiculous that it takes cinema to a different level where different rules apply. Forget logic. It’s a thrilling, farcical mess that somehow works – despite Travolta’s creepy tic of touching the face of anyone he meets.

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

The way John Travolta walks, talks and moves in this film is so effortlessly cool that you can only imagine the entire role was constructed around him. By day he works in a hardware shop in New York. At night, he dances in the local clubs where his astonishing moves have earned him a level of respect he cannot find in regular society, nor in his home life.  

It tackles issues including religion, class, social mobility, gender roles and the state of New York in the 1970s, but never in a heavy-handed manner.

Both incredibly dramatic and desperately sad, in some ways it’s a New York version of the sort of stories told in Billy Liar and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – a young man tries to rise above his background to make his way in the world while negative forces conspire to keep him down.

Get Shorty (1995)

Clever mixture of crime and comedy, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and adapted from the excellent novel by Elmore Leonard. 

John Travolta plays Chili Palmer, a loan shark from Miami who starts getting involved in the film world after going to L.A. on a job. He meets a horror director (Gene Hackman), a famous Hollywood star (Danny DeVito) and a glamorous B-movie actor (Rene Russo). But unfortunately there are gangsters out to get him (Dennis Farina, Delroy Lindo and James Gandolfini). 

It’s punchy and witty, with the twists and turns of Leonard’s plot captured well. Travolta is perfect in the lead role, and Russo has an easy charm. They both add to the appealing quirkiness.