He may have starred in a handful of classics and countless box office smash hits, but when you see John Travolta taking top billing in an action thriller that’s being released exclusively on home video or on-demand, then expectations should be adjusted accordingly. Incredibly, the actor has appeared in no less than seven movies to be awarded a zero percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, but Life on the Line is the one delivering a shock to the streaming system.
Per FlixPatrol, the irredeemably bad disaster flick has ended up as one of the most-watched features on ad-supported platform Freevee over the weekend, and has somehow even conspired to take its place as the number one top-viewed title for those residing in the United Kingdom. We have questions about that, because there are an infinite number of better ways to spend 97 minutes of your time.
Travolta’s electricity and telephone lineman has the requisite tragic backstory in place, and a simmering family dynamic carries on the cliches after his niece’s boyfriend ends up joining his crew. Upon attempting to play nice, the ragtag group are forced to band together when an oncoming storm threatens to create chaos and untold devastation, forging bonds that require them to place each other’s lives at the whim of a raging tempest.
Life on the Line does at least have a premise that could be deemed as interesting, but based on how critics and crowds reacted to the end result, it goes without saying that director David Hackl dropped the ball. Travolta makes a lot of dodgy VOD genre flicks, but he never comes close to committing in the same way as Face/Off co-star Nicolas Cage did during his decade in the doldrums, which is why his stint as a slumming former A-lister has proven to be so much more unremarkable as a result.
