It’s no secret that Robert De Niro is one of the greatest actors that ever lived. Just look at the list of classics: “Mean Streets,” “Taxi Driver,” “The Godfather Part II,” “The Deer Hunter,” “The King of Comedy,” “Once Upon a Time in America,” “Brazil,” “The Untouchables,” “Goodfellas,” “Heat,” and “Casino.” Is there any other actor that can claim to have been in this many great movies and given this many great performances? That’s of course a topic for another story, but notice how “Casino” was listed last. That’s where many people believed De Niro “gave up” serious films and for the next two decades resorted to choosing movies that didn’t live up to his talents. In fact, there are millennials today who actually think De Niro is best known for the Fockers trilogy!
I mean, really, the fault’s on De Niro, he’s the one that agreed to sign up and star in such aughts travesties as “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle,” “Showtime,” “City By the Sea,” “Analyze That,” “Godsend,” “Meet the Fockers,” “Hide and Seek,” “Righteous Kill,” “What Just Happened,” “Little Fockers,” “Killer Elite,” “New Year’s Eve,” “Red Lights,” “The Big Wedding,” “Freelancers,” “The Ages of Love,” “Everybody’s Fine,” “The Family,” “Last Vegas” and so on.
Anyways, that all changed last year when De Niro gave one of the great performances of the year in Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and is now set to star in the legendary’’s director’s next film with Leonardo DiCaprio, this one titled “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Regardless, De Niro has decided that he’s not ready to totally give up on the easy paychecks he gets for starring in stupid comedies. Case in point, the upcoming The War with Grandpa.” As seen in the trailer, De Niro plays an aging man that moves in with his daughter and her family, giving him the opportunity to grow closer to his grandkids. But what starts off as an amicable union turns out to be a slapstick rivalry between him and his smartass grandson. Starring opposite De Niro are Christopher Walken, Uma Thurman, Laura Marano, Oakes Fegley, Rob Riggle, Cheech Marin, and Jane Seymour. “The War with Grandpa” is directed by Tim Hill, who gave us the astonishingly bad “Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties,” “Hop,” and“Alvin and the Chipmunks.”
“The War with Grandpa” is set to arrive in theaters on October 9. You’ve been warned.
Now the question is whether Spidey can become the first movie to cross $1 billion domestically. With its legs having slowed down, and $63M in receipts still needed, I highly doubt it.