Sunnyside

In the year of 1979 between his more-famous younger brother John's movies of Moment by Moment and Urban Cowboy, Joey Travolta had a starring role of his own in this, a gang drama called Sunnyside. Among Joey's co-stars is Michael Tucci who just had a major supporting role in Joey's brother's blockbuster hit Grease as Sonny! Here, Tucci is Harry to Joey's Nicky. Joey sounds just like his brother and is quite good in his tough guy role as well as when he's also romancing his girlfriend Donna. Also appearing is Talia Balsam as the girlfriend of Joey's onscreen brother. I'll just now say this was quite a good showcase for Joey Travolta. Too bad it didn't do too well at the box office. Then again, maybe there was only one room for a successful acting Travolta in that particular family...

Joey Travolta stars in this gang film about a gang member who wants more out of his life and tries to break away from the gang life that he grew up in. Travolta does a good job in the lead role, and the film does have an interesting story but the direction by Timothy Galfas is lackluster. The film is quite dated as well, it is very much a product of the 70's-it would be interesting to see a remastered print of the film. It is a is a shame that Joey did not get another chance to show his on screen charisma. After this film flopped, his career as an actor and singer went nowhere (he was quite a good singer too). After several unsuccessful supporting roles, he went on to directing, and is now directing mainly straight to video efforts and is also a teacher of film for filmmakers with special needs. As an actor/singer, he never could come out from his brother's shadow, and this film did not really showcase him and give him his best chance to shine. Joey Travolta turns in a nice performance here, there are some great shots of Long island, and Staten Island the way they looked back in 79', but overall-the film is merely okay. good.