John Travolta holds court in his comfort zone as a kale smoothie-drinking mob boss who enlists four hapless 20-somethings (Michael Pitt, Christopher Abbott, Rob Brown and Dan Stevens) to do his kidnapping dirty work in lieu of a loan payback.
“Criminal Activities” nods to Quentin Tarantino and Elmore Leonard without going anywhere particularly new, with Robert Lowell’s screenplay trafficking in the usual played-for-laughs graphic violence, left-field monologues and casual misogyny. But director Jackie Earle Haley has assembled an above-par cast, particularly Edi Gathegi as the smooth-talking kidnappee and Pitt and Stevens as, respectively, the hothead and the neurotic of the group.
An eleventh-hour twist adds a bit of intrigue, and everyone — including Haley himself, as a henchman — seems to be having a pretty good time. Sadly, Travolta’s hard-working wig doesn’t get its own screen credit.