Robert DeNiro 1973-1997 or so? Yeah, maybe. At the very least you can make a case for it. While there were a few noble failures in that run (
The Last Tycoon, True Confessions, New York, New York), some very average affairs (
Falling in Love, Stanley & Iris, Backdraft) and a couple flat-out stinkers (
The Fan, Frankenstein, We're No Angels), there are so many good to great films and more than his fair share of bonafide modern classics that those years are difficult to fault his choices much.
But his career has been in freefall since the late '90s. For my money
CopLand,
Wag the Dog and
Jackie Brown were that last three movies even approaching great he was in, and those were all released in 1997. I'll give you the first installments of
Meet the Parents and
Analyze This. I think they're very safe, easy, barely above-average comedies that didn't even try to be anything spectacular. However both sequels are damn near unwatchable. But they are masterpieces compared to the sh!tty-*****-***** he's been cranking out with regularity:
Showtime, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Shark Tale, 15 Minutes, Flawless, Godsend, Great Expectations, City by the Sea, Men of Honor, The Score, Hide & Seek...these are some truly
bad movies. And there's lots of them. They'd be bad career choices for a third or fourth tier actor, but for one of the best and most influential thespians of his generation it's downright shameful.
And such a continued run of horrible, horrible flicks means even though he has a Hell of a career on balance, you can
no longer make any kind of realistic argument that Bobby De Niro is "always in good films". I dare you to watch
Showtime, 15 Minutes and
Hide & Seek back-to-back-to-back some evening and come out the other side singing DeNiro's praises.
I really liked
The Good Shepherd a lot and hope he directs more (
A Bronx Tale was very good, too). There's always hope he can pull his career out of the toilet, reputation wise (because certainly he's getting paid a
lot of moolah to appear in those stink-fests). Some of the upcoming projects he's attached to have promise. On paper, anyway. But this period of 1998-2005 takes him off the unerring list.
I think.
***END RANT NOW***