Coming soon? Pacino, Pesci, De Niro and Scorsese. In a mob movie

I liked The Good Shepherd too, but it was a supporting role. Three decent non-Focker movies in 12 years is not good.

 

Didn't see the Kevorkian/HBO thing. I saw Angels in America, and it was very good, though Pacino's Roy Cohn still displayed some of the tendencies (SHOUTING MY LINES!) we're talking about. It was understated at times, but it was still miles from Michael Corleone in the first Godfather.

 

I unfortunately didn't get to see it, but apparently Pacino made a good turn as Shylock in the "Merchant of Venice" this summer: http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/theater/reviews/01merchant.html.

 

He directed that one, too. Good movie.

 

Pesci "retired" supposedly because he's such a horse's ass that no one wanted to work with him. He had a nice 3-4 year run after he won his Oscar, but hasn't really done anything notable since "Casino."

 

I didn't see that but I saw the movie version that came out four or five years ago. I thought Pacino and the movie were both really good, but that was before I read Ron Rosenbaum just destroy the movie - specifically, the director's interpretation of Shylock - in a book I mentioned on the books thread, Shakespeare Wars. Definitely made me look at it from a different perspective.

Has anyone seen the American Experience documentary on Eugene O'Neill? Really good. But in it, various actors - Liam Neeson, Plummer, Robards, Pacino - give dramatic readings of some of his work. Pacino does the Iceman Cometh. It's intense, but a bit too Pacinoesque. Or, as this guy called it, "Pacino’s reading of Hickey’s soliloquy from “The Iceman Cometh” reminds one of Buddy Hackett and Jerry Lewis suffering a collective aneurysm...As for Eugene O’Neill, he is not only rolling over in his grave, but has reportedly resumed drinking in excess after seeing this particular mangling of his work."

http://www.bakedziti.net/?m=200603

Judge for yourself.

 

Pacino's portayal of Kevorkian was interesting but seemed more mimicry than acting, and the movie as a whole wasn't great.
At least he didn't play it in the 'Scent of a Woman'-'Any Given Sunday' style.

 

This isn't true. He has a reputation for being a pain in the ass, but there was an article in one of the movie magazines a couple years of all of the movies he's turned down in the last decade. He turned down the Nicholson role in The Departed, which was the reason for the article.

 

From IMDB

Pesci turned down the Jack Nicholson role and DeNiro turned down the Martin Sheen role in The Departed so both could make "The Good Shepherd."

I'd forgotten Pesci was even in that movie.

 

OK, fair enough.

But I do remember when he released the album "Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings the Blues" and was being interviewed on one of the ESPN Radio shows (for some reason). They played one of the tracks coming out of a break (apparently without pre-screening it), only to cut it short when Pesci/Gambini started dropping F-bomb after F-bomb on the CD.

 

Pesci's career began as a singer. I have no interest in hearing any of it. I just want to see him playing Leo Getz (yeah right) or some mobster sidekick as many times as he's willing to do it.

 

I'm intrigued by what The Departed would have been like had Pesci taken that role. Would he have tried to do a horrible baw-sten accent like Jack that came and went depending on the scene? I doubt it. Would have been interesting, though, to see a guy his size project the menace of a boss instead of a sidekick.