Which movie marked the downfall of Robert De Niro’s career?
There’s something impressive about the fact that the first few decades of Robert De Niro’s career were so critically acclaimed that he’s gotten away with starring in predominantly terrible movies for the past 25 years. The actor still seems to be recognised as one of Hollywood’s greats, yet most of the work he’s dedicated himself to after the turn of the millennium has been utter tripe.
While some of his earlier films, such as performances in Roger Corman’s Bloody Mama or James Goldstone’s The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, aren’t great, they’re excusable. Who could blame the budding actor for starring in any parts he could get his hands on, even if they did end up getting bad reviews? Luckily for De Niro, roles in Mean Streets and Bang the Drum Slowly marked the start of his career, with these movies allowing him to demonstrate his incredible acting talents.
After proving himself to be a versatile and skilled actor, he found himself appearing in movies which would soon be labelled as masterpieces, from The Godfather Part II to Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter and Raging Bull. De Niro was a key figure in the Hollywood New Wave, often portraying complex characters suffering from trauma and enduring violence and hardship.
With roles in New York, New York, The King of Comedy and Brazil during the late ’70s and ’80s, De Niro was able to show his penchant for comedy, and by the end of the decade and into the ’90s, his filmography had started to include more humorous, light-hearted roles. From Midnight Run and We’re No Angels to Mistress and One Hundred and One Nights, most of these comedic efforts were fairly well-received.
In the meantime, De Niro also starred in many acclaimed crime dramas like Goodfellas, Casino, Heat and Sleepers. The actor’s credits were well-rounded until a certain point – then, it all started to go downhill. You only have to look at titles like Gosend, Hide and Seek, The Bag Man, Dirty Grandpa, New Year’s Eve, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The War With Grandpa, Savage Salvation and Little Fockers to wonder if De Niro even cares about the art of cinema anymore.
All of these films are genuinely terrible, sharply contrasting the incredible pieces of work he starred in back in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. Of course, he has appeared in some good movies during the 21st century, such as Silver Linings Playbook, The Intern, Joy, The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon. However, these movies seem to be few and far between compared to the large collection of terrible movies – largely unfunny and crass comedies – clogging up his filmography.
But at what point did De Niro seem to give up on caring about the movies he stars in? A Twitter user named James Chapman made a graph to chart the moment that De Niro’s movies began to get worse, using Rotten Tomatoes as an indicator. While he mistakenly marks any movie with a rating over 50% as ‘Fresh’, when in actuality, only movies with a rating over 60% are given the label, the graph shows that the early 2000s were essentially the period in which he started appearing in terrible films.
The 2002 movie Showtime is considered by Chapman (according to his data) the moment that De Niro’s career took a downward turn. The movie earned De Niro a Razzie nomination and is considered one of the worst efforts of his career. Starring alongside Eddie Murphy, the movie tried to use satirical self-awareness to parody the buddy cop genre but failed miserably. From there, it didn’t take long for De Niro’s roles to go from bad to worse.
