A Look Into Robert De Niro’s Latest Work

Robert DeNiro in the Family

According to CNBC, the average age of retirement for U.S. citizens has risen from 57 to 61 over the past 20 years. While that four year jump in two decades might seem like a lot, it’s doubtful that you’ll see it hit the age of, say, 70 (or higher!) anytime soon. Why do we bring up that particularly number? Because one of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro, turned the big 7-0 this past August and the guy hasn’t slowed down a bit.

In the past five years alone he’s had leading or supporting roles in nearly 20 films. And that number will only increase with the six he’s currently filming or are in post-production. Given his prolificacy as of late and his past birthday, we’ve decided to take a look at some of De Niro’s latest films. We admit that it hasn’t all been great‚ in fact, one was downright dreadful and the definition of a flop‚ but his work ethic and bright spots are not to be overlooked. Now let’s go ahead and check out his recent work…

Killing Season

You probably haven’t heard about Killing Season in any capacity for a number of reasons. OK, the biggest reason is that it was slammed so hard by critics that it didn’t have a single leg left to stand on once the reviews were published. Dubbed superficial and painfully obvious by most, the action film barely made a peep at the box office. In all, it took home just about $40,000. With good reason, though, as it was only sent to a small number of theaters across the nation and is another one of those almost straight-to-DVD releases. You’d think more people would be interested in watching De Niro square off with John Travolta in a one-on-one battle, but that just wasn’t the case with this one. The Killing Season was easily killed.

The Family

Despite some tepid reviews out the gate, De Niro’s most recent film is definitely doing better than the film above. The Family is filled with much of what we’ve come to anticipate from him as of late. The narrative blends comedy and crime as you follow De Niro’s character, a former mafia boss named Giovanni Maznoni, and his family’s re-location to Normandy, France as part of the witness protection program. Once there, let’s just say that things don’t necessarily go as smoothly as FBI Agent Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones) planned.

This role as a gangster is obviously nothing new for De Niro, who has most notably depicted such characters in films like Goodfellas and Casino. It’d be interesting to see if they ever update either of those, especially the latter that would likely deal with online gambling sites like Betfair. It’s also easy to imagine folks being up in arms about both of those remakes, but that’s a discussion for another day. So far, The Family has nearly covered its production costs of $30 million.

Last Vegas

Not too much is known about Last Vegas, which is set to hit theaters on Nov. 1. That being said, it’s looking like it’ll be The Hangover for the older crowd. Along with De Niro, the film stars heavy-hitters Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline, and Michael Douglas. Together, they portray a group of friends who decide to hit Las Vegas for a bachelor party for the last one in the group to get married. For reference, Last Vegas‘ writer, Dan Fogelman, also wrote Cars, The Guilt Trip, and Fred Claus.

Grudge Match

We recently posted the trailer for upcoming boxing comedy Grudge Match. It features De Niro co-starring with Sylvester Stallone. The two portray retired fighters Billy “The Kid” McDonnen and Henry “Razor” Sharp, respectively. And when we say they’re retired, they haven’t been in the ring for 30 years. That lack of training in three decades’ time leads to some of the film’s laughs while the guys plot their moves to make good on a fight that should have taken place in the ’80s. Just for reference for the kids out there, both Stallone and De Niro made a name for themselves portraying boxers in the Rocky series and Raging Bull.

So what do you guys think? Does De Niro still have it, besides the occassional hit (Silver Linings Playbook)?