Robert De Niro's career

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In his 1994 edition of his biographical dictionary of film, David Thomson says of him

"Now fifty, he begins to seem increasingly difficult to cast, or satisfy"

Has anything changed? What would you cast him in?

N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 12 September 2003 17:22 (twenty years ago) link

Plaster of Paris?

Ally C (Ally C), Friday, 12 September 2003 17:30 (twenty years ago) link

[pally intermission - YOU'RE LATE]

N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 12 September 2003 17:36 (twenty years ago) link

star trek captain

A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 12 September 2003 17:37 (twenty years ago) link

A mobster or a cop.

NA (Nick A.), Friday, 12 September 2003 17:38 (twenty years ago) link

I actually really liked him in 'Jackie Brown', but it was kind of sad.

N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 12 September 2003 17:42 (twenty years ago) link

John Malkovich

oops (Oops), Friday, 12 September 2003 17:43 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah but since 1994 he's done Analyze This and Meet the Parents. Plus he was great in Casino. So David Thomson can suck it.

Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 12 September 2003 17:45 (twenty years ago) link

Guess what: I don't even care!

Ally C (Ally C), Friday, 12 September 2003 17:48 (twenty years ago) link

flight of the phoenix remake
prime cut remake
race with the devil remake

also he and j.depp should star in each other's biopics

jones (actual), Friday, 12 September 2003 17:51 (twenty years ago) link

plus he should really get a crack at harry potter

jones (actual), Friday, 12 September 2003 17:56 (twenty years ago) link

Taxi Driver 2: The Legend of Bickle's Gold

Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 12 September 2003 18:02 (twenty years ago) link

Taxi Driver 3 vs. Bad Boys 3 vs. Terminator 4

earlnash, Friday, 12 September 2003 18:56 (twenty years ago) link

vs. What's the Worst That Could Happen 2?

David. (Cozen), Friday, 12 September 2003 18:59 (twenty years ago) link

I liked (didn't LOVE) Ronin and The Score

Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 12 September 2003 19:01 (twenty years ago) link

I really liked him in the Score, because he revealed he could play a rational, intelligent human being. My least favorite roles of his are the ones where he plays a monochromatic inexplicable subhuman, like in The Fan, Cape Fear, This Boy's Life, Raging Bull (can you LaMotta fans point out what part of the young DeNiro/LaMotta's performance would even HINT at the possibility of him becoming the vaudevillian of the later half?), King Of Comedy (which would have worked better if it was JUST a comedy).

He's fine in Meet The Parents, though he was GHASTLY as an SNL host.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 12 September 2003 19:26 (twenty years ago) link

I love love love Ronin! and he's GREAT in Meet the Parents!

Miccio is right, that was just a heartbreaking SNL appearance. Heartbreaking.

s1utsky (slutsky), Friday, 12 September 2003 20:38 (twenty years ago) link

Best part of Meet the Parents is when he and Ben Stiller are in the car and DeNiro goes off on the dogs vs. cats rant.

I never saw this SNL thing. It was that bad?

Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 12 September 2003 20:41 (twenty years ago) link

Hoo, was it ever rough. Cue card city.

s1utsky (slutsky), Friday, 12 September 2003 20:42 (twenty years ago) link

Did he bring his glasses? (thinking of his Oscar presentation).

David Beckhouse (David Beckhouse), Friday, 12 September 2003 20:56 (twenty years ago) link

“Oh. You prefer an emotionally shallow animal. When you yell at a dog, it puts its tail between it legs, covers it genitals, it’s a very easy animal to break. But cats won’t sell out like a dog will, it makes you work for its affection.”

gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 12 September 2003 21:05 (twenty years ago) link

I loved The Score, Ronin, and even City by the Sea.

A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 13 September 2003 00:20 (twenty years ago) link

six years pass...

I would like to thank the American public for rejecting Everybody's Fine.

Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Monday, 21 December 2009 17:32 (fourteen years ago) link

More AMEX adverts

Cosmic Ugg (S-), Tuesday, 22 December 2009 01:57 (fourteen years ago) link

two months pass...

Vince Lombardi

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 9 March 2010 20:13 (fourteen years ago) link

four years pass...

https://vine.co/v/M1TBvaPOwEL

, Monday, 21 April 2014 07:04 (ten years ago) link

best in years obv

recommend me a new bagman (darraghmac), Monday, 21 April 2014 07:06 (ten years ago) link

http://i.onionstatic.com/avclub/5118/28/original/640.jpg

slam dunk, Thursday, 1 May 2014 03:34 (nine years ago) link

lol @ FROM A PRODUCER OF RIGHTEOUS KILL AND STREET KINGS

johnny crunch, Sunday, 11 May 2014 15:26 (nine years ago) link

Lock career.

Alba, Sunday, 11 May 2014 15:32 (nine years ago) link

seriously. a sad, inexplicable decline, from a guy who certainly can (or used to be able to) spot quality projects.

Daniel, Esq 2, Sunday, 11 May 2014 15:33 (nine years ago) link

his best movie of the 2000s insofar as being a respectable ambitious effort is probably the good shepherd, though its by no means perfect. he had that really tremendous mid 90s run and then idk what happened. his most embarrassing role for me was probably in Machete, though objectively i guess righteous kill was probably the "worst". he needs to get back together w/scorsese. It'slmost twenty years since they made a film together. it not him, Michael Mann idk.

christmas candy bar (al leong), Sunday, 11 May 2014 18:15 (nine years ago) link

he was a supporting character in that critically-praised recent film about bipolar disorder, right?

Daniel, Esq 2, Sunday, 11 May 2014 18:18 (nine years ago) link

yeah little fockers wasnt half bad

christmas candy bar (al leong), Sunday, 11 May 2014 18:24 (nine years ago) link

haha!

Daniel, Esq 2, Sunday, 11 May 2014 18:25 (nine years ago) link

robert's face is really haunting there. he looks like his kid ran into him getting ice cream with his mistress.

slam dunk, Sunday, 11 May 2014 22:17 (nine years ago) link

the bag man (2014. dir. David Grovic)
http://cdn.wegotthiscovered.com/wp-content/uploads/robert-deniro-woodland-creature.jpg

slam dunk, Sunday, 11 May 2014 22:20 (nine years ago) link

he just looks really disappointed that there are officers on the take, shaking his head at their occupation of the grey area between cop and criminal.

christmas candy bar (al leong), Sunday, 11 May 2014 22:21 (nine years ago) link

he is so beautiful now
he's like a beautiful king
he should probably make a film with sorrentino to exploit this, this kind of tragic gulf between his stature & eligibility & where he is, now
beautiful robert deniro

schlump, Sunday, 11 May 2014 22:23 (nine years ago) link

were yall aware that this movie exists/was released theatrically:
http://beautifuldreams.blog.pt/files/2014/04/Grudge-Match-675x506.jpg

slam dunk, Sunday, 11 May 2014 22:27 (nine years ago) link

With a fan poster?

james lipton and his francs (darraghmac), Sunday, 11 May 2014 22:33 (nine years ago) link

it's kind of amazing that stallone and de niro's once-different careers have followed winding paths to the point where a movie like that is not only not surprising but totally logical.

christmas candy bar (al leong), Sunday, 11 May 2014 22:38 (nine years ago) link

[as the fight starts]
Henry 'Razor' Sharp: [to the Kid] Gutsy move, going without a bra!
Billy 'The Kid' McDonnen: [to Razor] Yeah? I got a surprise for you: I took a dump on your porch!

Billy 'The Kid' McDonnen: I wanna beat you!
[hurls a machine at Razor]
Billy 'The Kid' McDonnen: Come on, come on! Come on! Come on!
[Razor charges at Kid]

Tranny Hooker: [Kid and Razor are dressed in green catsuits] You two some kind of superheroes?
Billy 'The Kid' McDonnen: Yeah, I'm the Green Champion and he's the Emerald Superpussy.

[training Kid]
B.J.: Did you just fart?
[gets up and walks away, choking]

slam dunk, Sunday, 11 May 2014 22:52 (nine years ago) link

Yeah, because the trailer for it showed before nearly every movie I watched in theaters last year xp

, Monday, 12 May 2014 00:19 (nine years ago) link

kind of funny that he isn't in the raging bull sequel but is in grudge match. was he busy shooting grudge match so he had to turn down raging bull 2? was that a moment of clarity for him?

slam dunk, Monday, 12 May 2014 00:28 (nine years ago) link

I thought the reason he had to be in so many films he wouldn't have otherwise is because he's had children with lots of women who are demanding major money. I've never heard it officially stated, but I've heard critics saying that he actually has no choice but to make loads of films for the money.

Also that Kevin Bacon and Nicolas Cage have been more prolific because of business deals that went really bad. But Cage was always really prolific.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 12 May 2014 00:55 (nine years ago) link

he is so beautiful now
he's like a beautiful king
he should probably make a film with sorrentino to exploit this, this kind of tragic gulf between his stature & eligibility & where he is, now
beautiful robert deniro

― schlump, Sunday, May 11, 2014 3:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://pmd205465tn.download.theplatform.com.edgesuite.net/Miramax/292/283/x1d2dvYTpUhORAKwdj4xXHCI4QaY_Pvd_640x360_53991491980.jpg

difficult listening hour, Monday, 12 May 2014 16:02 (nine years ago) link

exactly

Οὖτις, Monday, 12 May 2014 16:06 (nine years ago) link

He was fun in American Hustle but it's a low low bar. How much alimony does anyone need to pay?

What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 12 May 2014 16:33 (nine years ago) link

surprised Aubrey P would take the role honestly xp

rip van wanko, Friday, 22 January 2016 15:53 (eight years ago) link

btw playing a standup comic in a Taylor Hackford film written by Art Linson. Not expecting Pupkin in Winter.

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/leslie-mann-jennifer-aniston-robert-de-niro-comedian-1201683404/

we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Friday, 22 January 2016 16:07 (eight years ago) link

I get the feeling he was in a method bubble for so, so long that he didn't even realize he could just churn out shitty easy comedies for a lot of money. Like, maybe he'd go up to Scorsese and ask "Marty, why do so many of these actors have bigger houses in nice places?" And Scorsese would be all "I don't know, Bobby. Hey, you want some ice cream? Why don't you have a seat here in your modest apartment and I can run out and get you some. You don't want to be out there, anyway, it's so dirty and dangerous."

Kind of like the author Richard Russo, I read some interview with him once after he had written/sold his first screenplay 20 or so years into his career, and he was amazed at how much he made for doing so much less work than it takes to write a novel.

Josh in Chicago, Friday, 22 January 2016 16:27 (eight years ago) link

On the day of his wife’s funeral, Dick (De Niro) guilt-trips his grandson Jason (Efron) into helping him honor his late spouse by taking the same journey from Georgia to Boca Raton that they made each year. Though his wedding to prim Meredith (Julianne Hough) is fast approaching, Jason — a corporate lawyer who works for his dad, David (Dermot Mulroney) — reluctantly agrees to this task, only to just about throw up on one of his many polo shirt-and-khaki outfits when he goes to pick up Dick and finds the man pleasuring himself to porn, and casually referring to his climax as “a No. 3.”

Traveling in Meredith’s pink Mini Cooper, which Dick derisively refers to as a “giant labia,” the duo first stop at a golf course, where Dick begins his film-long habit of poking Jason in the ass with objects and/or his finger, all while espousing his consuming need for coitus.

hunangarage, Friday, 22 January 2016 16:49 (eight years ago) link

http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2016/01/dirty-grandpa.html

There are many ways you could go in attacking something like Dirty Grandpa. The easiest is to lament the fall of arguably the greatest actor from the greatest period in the history of film, to rend clothing and ululate about how De Niro has begun cashing checks in his dotage. It's tempting to use clever turns of phrase like "Aging Bull" as shorthand to avoid engaging with it. The hard way to approach Dirty Grandpa is to try to draw it into the larger conversation of what's happened to the state of our state when stuff like this is right there on the verge of being accepted as the new social lingua franca. It's the movie version of Donald Trump and Sarah Palin. There's no thesis, just provocation upon non sequitur provocation.

pitchforkian at best (cryptosicko), Monday, 25 January 2016 03:53 (eight years ago) link

eleven months pass...

"I want to fuck a horse and drink its blood" --Deniro in Dirty Grandpa

johnny crunch, Monday, 16 January 2017 17:13 (seven years ago) link

Surprised this article hasn't come up here before (though not sure of the argument)

Iago Galdston, Monday, 16 January 2017 18:18 (seven years ago) link

A counterpoint, from Reverse Shot:

Best Raging Bull: Robert De Niro in Dirty Grandpa
Like many other worthy comedies distributed in the drippy doldrums of late January, Dirty Grandpa was stomped on by cruise-controlled critics who took its release date and narrative scenario—a mouthy old horndog tries to re-enact Spring Breakers with his grandson in the name of inter-generational bonding—as indicators of de facto badness. Au contraire: this second film by the Oscar-nominated Ali G and Borat scribe Dan Mazer is a work of surprisingly clear-eyed vision: it’s a 90-minute leer in the general direction of Zac Efron, whose good-sporting, essentially decorative presence—i.e. stumbling around a police station lockup in an orange crop top reading “Stop Staring at My Tits”—gently redirects the masculine thrust of the material. The satirical key is the contrast between Efron’s hard-bodied blitheness and De Niro’s spirit-is-willing/flesh-is-weak intensity as the titular Grandpa; the way that the older man simultaneously resents, envies, and competes against his genetic inheritor is funny and truthful in ways that transcend the drab formalities of the plot. To some extent, Mazer is exploiting his gleefully slumming star’s aura, but darned if De Niro doesn’t seem more liberated than in any role in recent memory. This is what committed comic acting looks like.

Don Van Gorp, midwest regional VP, marketing (誤訳侮辱), Monday, 16 January 2017 18:40 (seven years ago) link

Gleefully slumming star? This is what committed comic horrifically ham acting looks like.

a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Monday, 16 January 2017 19:07 (seven years ago) link

i surprisingly laughed a lot @ dirty grandpa; its 100% ridiculous but idk i also think its kinda fun the lines that bobby d has to deliver convincingly, and does

johnny crunch, Monday, 16 January 2017 19:54 (seven years ago) link

it's a total abortion

Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Monday, 16 January 2017 19:55 (seven years ago) link

like worse than al pacino in that fucking adam sandler film

Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Monday, 16 January 2017 19:55 (seven years ago) link

He's working with Scorsese (and Joe Pesci and Al Pacino) again on The Irishman.

Alba, Monday, 16 January 2017 20:57 (seven years ago) link

one year passes...

What a shocker, another #Resistance anti-Trumper turns out to just want a more polite form of exploitation. https://t.co/7o4kVFNkkw

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) June 11, 2018

the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Monday, 11 June 2018 14:24 (five years ago) link

hard to believe the man whose best performance of the last 20 years might well be in dirty grandpa would nowadays be more interested in disaster capitalism than art

CARL MARKS PRINCIPAL INVESTING AND ADVISORY SERVICES (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 11 June 2018 14:30 (five years ago) link

two months pass...

I probably went to A Bronx Tale in 1993 hoping for something really good--De Niro was still a pretty good bet at the time. Forgot about it immediately. If you can give De Niro a pass for the slavish Goodfellas imitation (Jungle Fever, too), it actually holds up pretty well. Pesci's bit at the end is nice.

clemenza, Thursday, 16 August 2018 21:28 (five years ago) link

i don't think i'll ever get over what a disappointment a bronx tale is/was. probably my most loathed film of all time
― NI, Tuesday, May 13, 2014 10:57 PM (four years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Someone who couldn't give him a pass, I guess.

clemenza, Thursday, 16 August 2018 21:29 (five years ago) link

Palminteri really looked like a contender for awhile there, this and Bullets Over Broadway were his absolute peak though. His career went much better than Lillo Brancato Jr's however...

omar little, Thursday, 16 August 2018 21:31 (five years ago) link

Should mention him, too--he was good (and wrote it, of course). So were the young actors who played C and Jane.

clemenza, Thursday, 16 August 2018 21:35 (five years ago) link

Taxi Driver 2: The Legend of Bickle's Gold
― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, September 12, 2003

still a treasure

A is for (Aimless), Thursday, 16 August 2018 23:30 (five years ago) link

I would really like to see Midnight Run again. I saw it in the theater but I don't remember it much at all, but I remember liking it. The idea of a buddy cop action comedy with Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin is pretty wacky.

earlnash, Friday, 17 August 2018 00:26 (five years ago) link

Nothing’s more unnatural and awkward than DeNiro hamming it up

calstars, Friday, 17 August 2018 02:26 (five years ago) link

What’d I say to you?

Blecch, where is thy Zing? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 17 August 2018 02:45 (five years ago) link

If the part of this song about him "Never, ever [trying comedy] again" had remained true, it might've spared us Dirty Grandpa at least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh9GEvMzA6I

Brainless Addlepated Timid Muddleheaded Awful No-Account (Pheeel), Friday, 17 August 2018 06:39 (five years ago) link

nine months pass...

Bagel salesman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdMpVZ42RLk

John Harris is a Guardian columnist (Tom D.), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 07:21 (four years ago) link

absolutely fucking risible

Aspen Jortstein (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 09:30 (four years ago) link

The UK really is like Japan, so many US actors slumming it in commercials.

Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 4 June 2019 10:20 (four years ago) link

how much money does robert de niro need, really

Aspen Jortstein (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 10:21 (four years ago) link

De Niro, Pacino, Keitel... who's left?

John Harris is a Guardian columnist (Tom D.), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 12:19 (four years ago) link

Guy who played billy blanco from the bronx doing a Greggs ad?

calzino, Tuesday, 4 June 2019 12:35 (four years ago) link

I love Leguizamo and that would make me sad

specific goats my way (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 12:37 (four years ago) link

Jeff Bridges in a shitty beer ad atm

shhh / let peaceful like things (wins), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 12:46 (four years ago) link

Johnny Depp the next face of the Sun Life Over 50s Plan

wake me up when we get to Biffy Clyro (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 12:48 (four years ago) link

Where's the Jack Nicholson adverts?

John Harris is a Guardian columnist (Tom D.), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 12:53 (four years ago) link

Jeff Bridges in a shitty beer ad atm

oh god yeah this is absolutely atrocious and kinda made me hate jeff bridges

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdf_XybtFjU

Aspen Jortstein (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 12:55 (four years ago) link

Bob and Al hafta subsidize those 4-hr Scorsese epics

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 12:56 (four years ago) link

was wondering if james caan had done any ads and i can't seem to find any, which is heartening

Aspen Jortstein (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 12:57 (four years ago) link

It's funny thinking about the reverence and mystique conferred onto some of these hack one note clowns in the late 80's and what a joke they are now.

calzino, Tuesday, 4 June 2019 13:18 (four years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kao5YQeohyQ

This is a genre of itself. Notice the diners sitting on the corner just like they did in the Sopranos.

Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 13:27 (four years ago) link

was wondering if James Caan had done any ads* and i can't seem to find any, which is heartening

I thought I'd seen a Caan ad, but was confusing him w/Robert Loggia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZIzRqDOSZo

*Actually, there is a James Caan commercial on youtube, but it's for Rehab center, so it probably doesn't count.

a large tuna called “Justice” (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 15:10 (four years ago) link

Christ, the DeNiro bagel ad even uses a faux "Jump Into The Fire."

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 4 June 2019 15:27 (four years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InzueIgtTbo

Tuomas, Tuesday, 4 June 2019 15:27 (four years ago) link

two months pass...

He's on a roll (not a bagel) at the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02UES6ghcGs

How to Book Michael Fish (Tom D.), Monday, 5 August 2019 07:26 (four years ago) link

three years pass...

Great photo, showed up on my FB wall (Cannes, 1976). Thought about posting it on the "Photos taken of famous people together that you would never have expected to be together but make you happy all the same," as a joke.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FTB0pnPVEAAl55K.jpg:large

clemenza, Sunday, 14 May 2023 21:52 (eleven months ago) link

what about de niro's father's career imo

z_tbd, Sunday, 14 May 2023 22:56 (eleven months ago) link

I knew his mom was an established painter; somehow I forgot his father was, too.

clemenza, Monday, 15 May 2023 00:31 (eleven months ago) link

there is a poll between De Niro and Pacino on twitter right now about who was hotter when they were young, with hundreds of thousands of votes

At a wedding and having a big debate rn. Please vote. Who was hotter?

— Ashley Reese (@offbeatorbit) May 14, 2023

Dan S, Monday, 15 May 2023 00:40 (eleven months ago) link


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