Legal Commentary

How the mighty have fallen

By Tom Kirkendall

Some folks thought I was too hard (see also here) on the Stros and Craig Biggio for turning the Stros' 2007 season into a death march to Bidg's 3,000th hit.

However, my criticism of the Stros and Bidg was child's play in comparison to this LA Times broadside on fading Hollywood leading men, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. The following will give you a taste:

Pacino has made a string of bad films lately, including the famously awful "Gigli," "The Recruit" and "Two for the Money," where he hams it up as an unscrupulous football oddsmaker. If anyone has made more movies for the money than Pacino, it would be De Niro, who has largely abandoned serious dramatic work for a spate of forgettable horror and crime thrillers (try sitting through "Hide and Seek" or "Godsend") and lowbrow comedy high jinks like "Meet the Fockers" and "Analyze That."

De Niro's most recent film, "What Just Happened?," an inside-the-movie-biz comedy, got such an abysmal reception at Sundance that it limped out of the festival without a sale (it's expected to close the Cannes Film Festival this year). De Niro cut his longtime ties with CAA last week, defecting to Endeavor, inspiring a venomous response purportedly from one CAA agent that was e-mailed all over town. Claiming that De Niro asks for a $1-million production fee on his pictures to help fund his Tribeca empire in New York, it minces few words, saying, "Bobby held us responsible for his own greed, his own avarice and his own megalomania. And it's just like the studios now ask us: Why should we pay this guy -- who doesn't open a movie -- the payoff to his production company, just so he can add his name as a producer?"

Also check out this Variety review and related blog post on Pacino's latest movie "88 Minutes," which is already being included in some "worst ever" lists.

Tough place, that Hollywood.

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on April 25, 2008 (boomark / email).