Last week, I had the pleasure of sitting through Thirteen Ghosts. I thought to myself; "Do movies get any worse than this?" Cut to a short week later! The answer, sadly, is yes. Domestic Disturbance was so painful to sit through that I'm still disturbed by it.

John Travolta stars as a loving father who can only sit back and watch as his ex-wife (Teri Polo) re-marries, taking their son into an entirely new life. The new father figure (Vince Vaughn) is a mysterious, yet likable, guy with a bit of a dark side. Young Mark Barnes sees this dark side first hand, but no one seems to believe him when he tells them he's seen a murder. No one, that is, except for super dad Travolta, who will stop at nothing to protect his son.

There is only one word that aptly describes this low rent thriller. STUPID!!!!!! Harold Becker is a more than competent director. In past films, he's taken material that shouldn't have worked, and brings it to life with twists and double crosses (see the entertaining Malice). This time out, however, he fails to even come close to pulling this trash out of the bin.

Nothing in this picture works. Barnes' character is completely unrealistic. I never bought his reaction to the murder, nor did I believe he actually feared Vaughn. Vaughn plays one of the most uninteresting villains in recent memory. He wasn't scary and I never bought him as the heavy. He gave a much more noteworthy turn in the dark comedy Clay Pidgeons. And don't get me started on Travolta. What the hell happened? He was so good in Pulp Fiction and Get Shorty, but with the possible exception of Phenomenon he's been involved in one hell of a lot of crap. The General's Daughter, Battlefield Earth...take your pick! Does this guy have another comeback in him? His performance here is absolutely laughable. Granted this is a badly written and directed project, but he certainly doesn't do anything to elevate the material. If the film has a saving grace, it's Polo. Although I wouldn't call this a compelling performance, she does have a good sense of timing, particularly in the final moments of the picture. I also liked Steve Buscemi as a the token creep.

Domestic Disturbance is one ludicrous scenario after another leading to a pretentious, supposed crowd pleasing climax that really agrivated me. We've seen similar endings in films like The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, and more recently, The Glass House. Maybe some people like this sort of junk but not me. This is one dumb thriller that I'm going to try and forget.