Al Pacino

Al Pacino is undoubtedly one of the greatest film actors of all time, but his fall these last 10 years is pretty terrible. Pacino along with Brando and De Niro were so good at the height of their powers before they fell into making just bad movies. Pacino though, used to be such a subtle actor, always about to explode. Watch Godfater Part II, and he always is about to explode into something otherworldly, a rant and explosion of such ferocity that you get pushed back in your seat like a plane taking off. Scarface fucked him up by having him do nothing but yell, which he suddenly thought was the only way to work. You Don’t Know Jack was great, his recent Jack Kevorkian film for HBO, but I think his speech in Devil’s Advocate at the end is so good, so perfectly delivered, that it makes up for his recent failures. He rants, yes, but it is controlled and completely within character as Satan. It is probably made better in comparison to the rest of the movie and Keanu’s faux southern accent, but damn if him laughing and discussing freewill at the end doesn’t make me grin with pleasure at the quality and brilliance of it all. So good on its own, it blanks out Righteous Kill and 88 Minutes from my mind. Still can’t believe Keanu killed himself at the end. Such a Jesus friendly cop out. If you knew that you were the son of the devil, why would you kill yourself? Catholic guilt is a bitch, but Pacino sure as hell isn’t.