Hey R.D. Get with it you jerk.

REVIEW
Searching for Bobby DeNiro
Whatever happened to the brilliant star of such films as Raging Bull and Taxi Driver?

BY DAVID WALKER
dwalker@wweek.com

Remember when Robert DeNiro used to make good films? Think back two or three decades to Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. With nearly 70 screen credits to his name, DeNiro is considered one of the greatest actors in American cinema. The truth is, he has had some moments of greatness, but DeNiro ain't all that great.

Just take the DeNiro test: Name 10 films with great DeNiro performances that were not directed by Martin Scorsese. I'll even get you started--The Godfather: Part II, Midnight Run, Heat, The Untouchables.

The sad reality is that Bobby DeNiro has become one of those actors who cares more about making money than making good films. He has entered into direct competition with Michael Caine for the "I'll Do Anything for a Buck" Actor of the Year award. Proof? The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle. Meet the Parents. The Fan.

In DeNiro's latest, 15 Minutes, he plays Eddie Fleming, a hotshot New York cop and best-selling author whose exploits are about to be turned into a film. Eddie teams up with chivalrous arson investigator Jordy Warsaw (Ed Burns). Both men are out to catch Emil Slovak and Oleg Razgul, a crazed pair of Slavic psychopaths videotaping their murder spree.

Writer-director John Herzfeld wants his film to be a scathing attack on the media and America's obsession with violence. He also wants to make a good movie. Unfortunately, Herzfeld is an inept filmmaker--if he were an arsonist he couldn't start a fire with a can of kerosene and a book of matches. 15 Minutes is not so much a waste of talent as a waste of time--the audience's time. You could better utilize those two hours cleaning your oven or digging in your backyard for worms.

And then there's DeNiro, giving a performance that makes Steven Seagal look like...well, DeNiro. He doesn't even appear to be trying to act; he's simply delivering his lines, finding his mark and contorting his face in that caricaturelike grimace that makes him look like he's having a painful bowel movement. DeNiro's attention seems to be more on whether or not his paycheck will clear than on actually acting. This is not the same man who once became Jake LaMotta; this is a guy making a house payment.

There's nothing wrong with actors earning a living--we all gotta pimp ourselves. The problem is when talented actors like DeNiro don't even try. It's one thing when a good actor turns in a competent performance in a bad film; but lately, DeNiro has been performing badly in equally bad films. DeNiro is a great actor when he works with the likes of Scorsese--someone who challenges him to earn his money. Instead of pushing himself as an actor, however, DeNiro has been forcing his fans to endure his phoned-in performances with schlock like 15 Minutes.