One of my all-time favorite actors has fallen off...

So today, I finally watched a movie that I thought I'd been waiting on forever. My two favorite actors of all-time, Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, had finally truly done a movie together. Of course, they were both in The Godfather II, but since their roles took place in two separate time periods, they shared no screen time. They also starred in Heat together, but shared very little screen time, save for one memorable scene. On September 12th, the world received the film they were waiting for, Righteous Kill. These two screen legends were going to share the screen throughout the movie. To top it off, it looked like a damn good movie.

Unfortunately, it didn't live up to the hype. The film was generic and predictable ... very predictable ... VERY VERY VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY predictable. But this blog isn't about Righteous Kill, it's about something much worse: the decline of the career of Al Pacino.

I've literally watched one of the finest actors of all-time fall from perennial Oscar favorite, to box office bust. Al Pacino used to be one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood. Over a 20-year time span, he played a myriad of different, yet equally amazing, characters. In 1972, he starred in one of our all-time greatest films, The Godfather. In 1973, he played Officer Frank Serpico in Serpico. In 1974, he returned to the role of Michael Corleone and won as Oscar. In 1975, he starred in one of my all-time favorite films and probably one of his most slept-on roles in Dog Day Afternoon. In it, he played a ... well, we'll call him "eccentric" ... man who royally bungles a bank robbery. The money from the robbery would have been used to pay for his wife's operation. In 1979, he played a lawyer in yet another one of his most slept-on roles in And Justice For All. In 1983, he starred in his most famous role as Tony Montana in Scarface. And in 1992, he won another Oscar playing a blind retired Army colonel in Scent Of A Woman. All of these roles very different, but equally outstanding.

What happened to the Al Pacino who played different characters? Now, he plays the same guy in every movie: the gravely-voiced hard-ass. Insomnia, Any Given Sunday, The Recruit, Ocean's Thirteen, 88 Mins, Righteous Kill ... all essentially the same character. I don't think he takes the role if he doesn't get to raise his voice in it. I keep waiting for that role that rejuvenates Al's career, the one that will provide him with his first Oscar nomination since ... well, 1992. How many more bad movies or bad roles is Al going to have to take before he stops getting work altogether? Can he even show diversity anymore? Robert DeNiro has shown he can be FUNNY. Al doesn't even seem able to change his voice anymore. I hope I'm wrong, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the inevitable failure of Righteous Kill will signal the end of the career of a screen giant.