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Scorsese and DeNiro set to Paint Houses?

October 2nd, 2008 by Scott Marks

Scorsese and DeNiro last teamed on “Casino” (1995)

If Paramount pictures has its way, Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro will return to a life of crime.

Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List, Gangs of New York) has been hired to adapt Charles Brandt’s I Heard You Paint Houses, the story of  Frankie “the Irishman” Sheeran, a mob enforcer rumored to have been responsible for the murder of Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. According to Variety that the film “will be produced by Scorsese and Tribeca partners De Niro and Jane Rosenthal. Project landed at Paramount through the overall deal that the studio has with Scorsese’s Sikelia Prods.”

The title refers to mob hitmen who paint walls with their victims’ blood. Before his death in 2003, Sheeran confessed to Brandt that he carried out orders from mob boss Russell Bufalino to kill and dismember Hoffa.

Scorsese is currently wrapping up Ashecliffe, an adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island which is scheduled to be released exactly one year from today’s date. According to imdb.com, Marty is also slated to direct a documentary on George Harrison in addition to Silence, a tale of two Jesuit priests on an evangelical mission in 17th century Japan, and a biopic of Teddy Roosevelt. Variety mentions two more projects, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Long Play. DeNiro just finished work on Everybody’s Fine and is rumored to appear in Street of Dreams and Frankie Machine as well as the hotly anticipated video game adaptation of Michael Mann’s Heat. The good news is that DeNiro finally does some serious acting in Barry Levinson’s soon to be released What Just Happened?

With Marty riding high on his recent best director Oscar, it’s DeNiro (The Good Shepherd, Stardust, RIghteous Kill) who desperately needs a hit.

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Review: RIGHTEOUS KILL / Jon Avnet (2008)

September 11th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Look how they make him look. Like a bum! Like a Mama Luke!

Righteous Kill (2008)
Directed by Jon Avnet
Written by: Russell Gewirtz
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Carla Gugino, John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg, Brian Dennehy and Curtis Jackson
Running Time: 100 min.
Aspect Ratio:

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

So much meat and so little sizzle. As a thriller, it’s not competent enough to turn heads and as an unintentional comedy, it’s not bad enough to be good. What’s truly amazing is how few sparks fly when the two stars finally get to spend quality time together in the same film.

The sixty-plus actors play a pair of brotherly homicide cops in their fifties and the glaring cinematography easily adds a couple of decades. When a serial killer turns out to be DeNiro, it’s up to Al to defend his buddy and do whatever he can to prove his innocence. A serial killer on the force forms a terrific premise for a film (ask Larry Cohen), yet in the unskilled hands of Jon “Fried Green Hack” Avnet it becomes a sub-average crime thriller. The only reason this earned one star is due to a twist ending that came as a complete surprise.

The killer on the loose has a habit of leaving short poems at the scene of each crime. While DeNiro can fight, he’d much rather recite his videotaped confession (it functions as the film’s narration) in a monotone that makes Travis Bickle’s diary entries sound like an auctioneer.  With the exception of a few rousing exchanges peppered with “f–ks,” they never come to life, particularly Pacino. I’m surprised that Al agreed to work with Avnet after their lethal collaboration on 88 Minutes, one of the worst films of 2008.

Who knew that Brian DePalma would have such an everlasting impact on Al’s countenance? That leather jacket that he wore in Carlito’s Way has come to mean as much to Pacino as the cowboy hat Jimmy Stewart wore in the Anthony Mann’s westerns. And talking about hair-wear, what’s that schmate perched atop Al’s noggin? His inferiority complex would be better served by a pair of lifts rather than a height-enhancing swatch of broadloom.

DeNiro delivers the same crumpled expressions he’s been serving up for well over a decade. (Has “America’s Finest Actor” turned in a decent performance in a watchable movie since Jackie Brown? If any of you suggest Stardust, I’ll personally beat youse with my f–king shinebox.) How much higher a tax bracket does he aspire to? After all the unmitigated garbage he’s insulted us with over the past too many years, he should be refused payment on his next five features. Give the money to Marty’s Film Foundation and that’s that.

Continue reading Review: RIGHTEOUS KILL / Jon Avnet (2008)

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Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro together again at last?

July 8th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Robert DeNiro & Martin Scorsese

The deplorable Shark Tale notwithstanding, it’s been thirteen years since Casino, the last time Marty and Bobby worked together. Since then DeNiro has “focked” up his career with such execrable offerings as Flawless, 15 Minutes, Hide and Seek and Stardust while Marty found Leonardo DiCaprio a worthy replacement and finally went on to win an Oscar for his worst movie.

At the bottom of a Variety interview concerning the recent threat of an actor’s strike, DeNiro had this to say about future collaborations with Scorsese:

His long collaboration with Martin Scorsese — which he ascribed to the fact it’s always been “a lot of fun to work” together — should produce at least two more films, De Niro said.

His next project with Scorsese, which he declined to detail, is one on which he’s already working and should be ready by 2009, he said.

Earlier in an interview with the festival daily newspaper, De Niro had said he was “superstitious about talking about it.”

YeahbuthowlongdoIgottawait!

Superstitious? This from a man who, for the past decade, has continually fouled cinema and tarnished his reputation with an unbroken string of bad luck abominations. And Marty’s laughing all the way to the f*cking bank with his booze and credit card endorsements.

It’s about time that DeNiro and Scorsese stopped resting on their laurels and got back down to the serious business of picture making. And while they’re at it, dust off that indolent Joe Pesci, too. He would have made such an adorable Kundun.

Links:
Martin Scorsese Photos
Robert DeNiro Photos
Mean Streets Photos
Taxi Driver Photos
New York, New York Photos
Raging Bull Photos
Goodfellas Photos
Casino Photos

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Judge dismisses cancerous lawsuit against Robert DeNiro

March 12th, 2008 by Scott Marks

hide-and-seek.jpg
Hide and seek refuge in another multiplex

LOS ANGELES - Listen you screwheads, the honorable Judge Rolf M. Treu has found Bobby D. blameless in a lawsuit filed against the actor by an insurance company that claimed he misrepresented his health for a movie role.

Where do they get their balls big enough to file an accusation like that?

Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. handled the despisable horror film Hide and Seek in which the “greatest actor of his generation” was bested by that scene-stealing moppet Dakota Fanning. The company claimed the actor lied about his condition when he wrote that he had never been diagnosed with or treated for prostate cancer.

The Associated Press reports that court documents prove that De Niro was diagnosed with prostate cancer on Oct. 15, 2003, two days after he signed the medical certificate. De Niro underwent a prostate-gland biopsy on Oct. 10, 2003.

A Los Angeles Superior Court granted De Niro’s motion for summary judgment on Monday.

“This ruling vindicates what we’ve said all along,” De Niro’s attorney Robyn Crowther said. “We are pleased that the court has found that Fireman’s Fund can’t sue Mr. De Niro for getting cancer.”

Too bad fans and critics can’t sue Mr. DeNiro. Through his career choices, for the past ten years Robert DeNiro has willingly and knowingly  spread an insidious strain of multiplex cancer throughout malls across America. There should have been wanted posters slapped on every box office that sold tickets for Stardust offering a million dollar reward for information leading to DeNiro’s arrest on charges of prostitution.

De Niro’s diagnosis and resulting treatment delayed the movie production. Fireman’s Fund paid Fox more than $1.8 million to cover the cost of the delay. Hide and Seek metastasized in theaters in January 2005.

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Take the Emulsion Compulsion Martin Scorsese on Film Quiz

March 11th, 2008 by Scott Marks

KNOW YOUR MARTY!!!

A. Name the first film Marty directed while attending NYU.

marty.jpg

1. VESUVIAS VI
2. I CALL FIRST
3. IT’S NOT JUST YOU, MURRAY
4. WHAT’S A NICE GIRL LIKE YOU DOING IN A PLACE LIKE THIS?
5. THE BIG SHAVE

B. Marty was one of the editors on this landmark 1970 rockumentary.

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1. MEDICINE BALL CARAVAN
2. THE LAST WALTZ
3. MONTEREY POP
4. WOODSTOCK
5. SHINE A LIGHT

C. Marty posing with a director who had a tremendous influence on his career. Name him.

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1. Raoul Walsh
2. Emeric Pressburger
3. William Beaudine
4. Max Ophuls
5. Michael Powell

D. In which of Marty’s films does his mother, Catherine Scorsese NOT make an appearance?

catherine.jpg

1. THE KING OF COMEDY
2. RAGING BULL
3. WHO’S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR?
4. GOODFELLAS
5. CASINO

E. Marty did old friend and producer / director Irwin Winkler a solid by agreeing to appear in this 1991 film.

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1. GUILTY BY SUSPICION
2. THE NET
3. A BRONX TALE
4. THE GRIFTERS
5. ROUND MIDNIGHT

Continue reading Take the Emulsion Compulsion Martin Scorsese on Film Quiz

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Listen you screwheads — Robert DeNiro endorses Barack Obama

February 4th, 2008 by Scott Marks



Bobby D. endorsed Barry O. today. Why is it that whenever DeNiro speaks from a prepared speech he sounds like Rupert Pupkin delivering his monologue in The King of Comedy?

For those of you with a slow connection unable to download videos, here are the highlights of DeNiro’s speech:

  • February four. All my life needed was a sense of someone to vote for. I don’t believe that one should devote his life to Hillary Clinton. I believe that someone should become a person like other people.
  • The idea had been growing in my brain for some time. True force. All W’s men cannot put it back together again.
  • I first saw Toukee Smith at Obama Campaign headquarters at 63rd and Broadway. She was wearing a white dress. She appeared like an angel. Out of this filthy mess, she is alone. They… cannot… touch… her.
  • I tried several times to call Barry, but after the first call, he wouldn’t come to the phone any longer. I also sent flowers but with no luck. The smell of the flowers only made me sicker. The headaches got worse. I think I got stomach cancer. I shouldn’t complain though. You’re only as healthy, you’re only as healthy as you feel. You’re only as…healthy…as…you…feel.
  • I realize now how much Hillary Clinton is just like the others - cold and distant, and many people are like that. Women for sure. They’re like a union.
  • Bad role choices have followed me the past 15 years. Every one. Rocky and Bullwinkle, Hide and Seek, Stardust. Sick. Venal.
  • Now I see it clearly. My whole life is pointed in one direction. I see that now. There never has been any choice for me. Obama’s the one!
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