Viewing Thread:
"Pacino, or De Niro?"

Simple really.

Which of these two is your favourite actor, and which is the best film you think they've each done.

Choices:

Al Pacino, or Robert De Niro?

I do think Heat was a good film, but it happens to be Vottenator's favourite film, he might be angry. I liked Goodfellas as De Niro's best film.

They have both done pretty dire films as well as the classics. ie, HEAT. That really did stink. It's probably summed up by the fact that the main dialogue of the film was about the relationship between the two lead characters, which was lame, badly thought out, artificial, and since everything they said was totally obviously implicit to the film, saying it was just patronising to the audience.

I'd have to say Pacino and De Niro's best films were Serpico and Taxi Driver respectively. Difficult to chose between them, but I'd have to go for De Niro as he's done more quality films and has shown so much more diversity.

But Heat. How can I say anything good about either of them after thinking about Heat? I apologise if you like Heat.

My favourite Pacino performance is still as "Lefty" in Donnie Brasco. But I think this only seemed special because he's normally "the man" in whatever film he's in.
Scarface and Carlito's Way were also very good films/performances.

But I think De Niro beats Pacino overall. They've both done pants films in there time, but I think De Niro's prime was better than Pacino's.
Goodfellas or Casino are probably my favourite De Niro films, I also thought that he was pretty damn good in Ronin, but thet were all pretty good in that film so he maybe didn't stand out as much.

Scarface was rubbish!? How can you say that?!?!

Ok, the ending was a bit crap, where he's just standing there, getting shot, but apart from that it's a great film!

Also, De Niro has played some smaller parts in films people don't always seem to remember, I thought he was great in Sleepers, but maybe that's just me.

I know he did that terrible film that was released at the beginning of summer, I think it was with some cartoon characters. Needless to say, I didn't go and watch that...

De Niro has emabarrassed hinself in some truly dreadful films recently but no-one can match De Niro in his prime. Godfather II, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, King of Comedy etc. etc. Pacino doesn't even come close (oh, and Scarface was rubbish).

Wasn't Pacino that blind guy in that movie about that blind guy?

I think it was called The Blind Guy, but I'm not sure.

Chris O'Donnel may or may not have also been in it.

And it may or may not have intentionally been a comedy.

I think that De Niro was quite good in Meet The Parents.

It was good to see him in a different role, playing something other than the hard man like he does in nearly all of his other films.

I think Pacino is fantastic in Scarface, and in The Insider as well. Credit goes out to De Niro though, in most of his films that he did with Scorcese (Goodfellas, Casino, Raging Bull) he improvises. Just makes the words up as he goes along, which I think shows how well he can get to grips with his character.

To my knowledge, Pacino has never tried to do comedy, therefore, he wins hands down.

De Niro and either Goodfellas or Casino.

Simple really.

Which of these two is your favourite actor, and which is the best film you think they've each done.

Choices:

Al Pacino, or Robert De Niro?