I saw some interesting and not so flattering comments today about Al Pacino and Robert De Niro and the acting choices they make today, and it sparked a memory.
Francis Ford Coppola was interviewed by GQ magazine a while back and he also badmouthed Pacino and De Niro, the stars of Coppola’s immortal “Godfather” films. He got a little too personal in some ways but the gist of his criticism toward the two legendary actors was for taking parts for the money and losing their passion for doing great work. At the time I kind of questioned Coppola for his remarks but now I am not so sure.
Back in the day (the 70’s) Pacino and De Niro were Hollywood, heroes to a generation of young actors and filmmakers, with the electrically charged work they did in such films as “Serpico,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Mean Streets” and “Taxi Driver.”
It’s not easy being an older actor in Hollywood, where the juiciest roles are written for a narrow age range that pretty much begins with Will Smith and ends with George Clooney.
Al Pacino has made a string of bad films lately, including the famously awful “Gigli,” and “Two for the Money.” But Of the dozen or so movies that opened in theatres on Friday, including a bloodfest called “Zombie Strippers” (with adult film star Jenna Jameson!) and a gruesome murder-mystery about a gang of psycho medical students called “Pathology,” the worst of the bunch might be “88 Minutes.” 88 is a hapless thriller, staring Pacino as a hotshot forensic psychiatrist stalked by a mysterious killer. The critics have had a field day, resulting in it being the second-lowest-rated movie of the year on Metacritic.com.
Throughout the film, Pacino, who turns 68 on Friday sporting a dusky orange tan that suggests a George Hamilton look, is surrounded by nubile young actresses who play students lusting after or enamored by him. Vanity be thy name Al. Insiders familiar with the project say Avi Lerner, the colorful Israeli producer who has made hundreds of B movies over the last 20 years, paid Pacino $9 million to do the picture, knowing Pacino’s presence in a commercial thriller would allow Lerner to offset the cost of the film by selling it overseas. Lerner pocketed $6 million more by selling domestic distribution rights to Sony Pictures.
Lerner has another big investment on Pacino, who returns this fall in “Righteous Kill,” a serial killer thriller (picture above) that teams Al with Robert De Niro as New York City cops on the trail of an unsolved murder. With Avnet at the helm again (also directed 88 Minutes), expectations for quality are low.
Speaking of De Niro his selectivity in choosing roles lately is questionable too. He has seemingly abandoned serious dramatic work for a spate of forgettable horror and crime thrillers and lowbrow comedy high jinks like “Meet the Fockers” and “Analyze That.”
De Niro’s most recent film, “What Just Happened?,” an inside-the-movie-biz comedy, got such an abysmal reception at Sundance that it limped out of the festival without a sale. De Niro cut his longtime ties with CAA last week, defecting to Endeavor, inspiring a venomous response purportedly from one CAA agent that was e-mailed all over Hollywood. The poison note claimed that De Niro asks for a $1-million production fee on his pictures to help fund his Tribeca empire in New York: “Bobby held us responsible for his own greed, his own avarice and his own megalomania. And it’s just like the studios now ask us: Why should we pay this guy — who doesn’t open a movie — the payoff to his production company, just so he can add his name as a producer?”
The e-mail also attacked De Niro’s career choices, pointing out that he could’ve “gone the [Jack] Nicholson route — very selective, very particular, protect the brand — or go out sending himself up in tripe like ‘Analyze This,’ which made money but turned him into that ‘old psycho guy.’ ”
I recall a few Nicholson clunkers as well, but he also picked his spots, doing movies with Martin Scorsese, Alexander Payne and Sean Penn. Perhaps Coppola had a point after all in that GQ interview.
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