We’re nearly 50 years out from John Travolta’s meteoric rise to from sitcom player to movie stardom with “Saturday Night Fever” and “Grease” and “Urban Cowboy” in the 1970s, and just a week ago we saw Travolta reuniting with Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman and other cast members to celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Pulp Fiction,” and while Travolta may never again reach the heights of those eras, he keeps on working and remains a compelling screen presence.
At 70, Travolta still exudes a certain movie-star twinkle in the heist thriller “Cash Out,” which plays like a solid, B-movie riff on “The Thomas Crown Affair,” with Travolta and Kristin Davis (“Sex and the City”) turning in fine work playing lovers who are on opposite sides of the law — or are they?
No need to oversell what we have here. With a zippy if at times preposterous script from Dipo Oseni and Doug Richardson that might not totally hold up under scrutiny, “Cash Out” has a certain undeniable style, as personified by the use of Frank Sinatra’s “You Go to My Head” over the opening credits. (As the Los Angeles Times has reported, the director credited as “Ives” is in fact Randall Emmett of “Vanderpump Rules” semi-fame, who was the subject of an L.A. Times investigation in 2022 and a Hulu documentary that examined allegations of abuse and mistreatment. Emmett has denied the allegations.)
In what amounts to a prologue, Travolta’s Mason Goddard and Davis’ Amelia Deckard pose as a husband and wife who along with Mason’s regular crew pull off a daring heist of a $20 million sports car. All goes according to plan — until it’s revealed Amelia is actually undercover with the FBI. Mason and his gang barely escape, and Mason says that’s it, he’s out of the game for good and ready to enjoy a few beers and a quiet retirement.
That all changes when Mason’s idiot younger brother Shawn (played by 48-year-old Lukas Haas, so I guess Shawn is Mason’s MUCH younger brother) comes up with an ill-conceived plan to rob a bank — a plan that seems destined to result in the capture or deaths of Shawn and the rest of the crew, which includes the amiable Anton (played by the rapper Quavo), the hot-headed Hector (Noel Gugliemi) and the obligatory computer hacker, known as Link (played by Natali Yura, who gives off major Aubrey Plaza vibes).
Mason arrives on the scene just a little too late to put a stop to Shawn’s scheme, as the crew has taken hostages while Shawn is forcing the smarmy bank manager, Georgios (Swen Temmel), to open the vault so he can access a very specific Safe Deposit Box containing … well, you know, containing one of those Incredibly Valuable MacGuffins that will fetch tens of millions for Shawn and the crew.
Turns out Shawn has picked the wrong person to rob, which results in the feds swarming on the scene, with none other than Amelia as the lead negotiator, which is going to be kind of awkward, given Mason and Amelia still clearly have feelings for one another. We settle in for a standard-issue heist movie, with graphics chronicling the passing hours, and a number of complications ensuing.
“Cash Out” is at its best when Travolta’s Mason is puzzling out the latest developments and trying to figure out a way to keep himself, his goofball brother, and his beloved crew from being arrested or worse. The man who gave us Tony Manero, Danny Zuko, Vincent Vega and Chili Palmer still has some star power left in the tank.
