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Pacino plays the Devil here and, in the scene, explains to his adversary, Keanu Reeves (stop laughing, I'm not at the good part yet), that God is a "sadist! He's an absentee landlord!" If you haven't seen this on TV, check out the scene on YouTube and try not to laugh at Pacino's scenery-chomping performance. Heck, try not to laugh at Reeves shouting at Pacino. Either way, this is one of the best American actors from a previous era, and he needs a major career makeover. What he needs to stick to are lower-key roles; Insomnia, The Insider, and the most recent version of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice are prime examples of the best work he can offer. So, Al, avoid the loud roles for the time being...please?

Nicole Kidman

Think back to the year 2001. This was a good year for Nicole Kidman. This was the year that she starred in Moulin Rouge! and The Others, two well-regarded genre movies, one of which ended up garnering her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. The following year, Kidman won an Oscar for her portrayal of real-life author Virginia Woolf in The Hours. Things have gone downhill since then, I'm sad to say, as I'm a fan of the actress's work. It's hard to defend someone who starred in Bewitched, The Golden Compass, and The Invasion, though. To be fair, if the next movie she's in doesn't do well, I doubt we'll be able to blame her.

The movie is the upcoming musical Nine, which also stars Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, Penelope Cruz, and Daniel Day-Lewis. So...yeah, I doubt it'll be on her shoulders should the movie suck. This is a good start to getting back into the limelight, but Kidman needs to be in more original work, or movies that aren't based on kitschy sitcoms no one likes anymore. Starting with an ensemble piece such as Nine could help her, or it could just reaffirm the belief that the year 2001 was a big fluke. Nicole, I hope you prove them wrong.

Robert De Niro

You might think that I pretty much covered the intense Italian-American actor set when I discussed Al Pacino, but you'd be wrong. Yes, Pacino's been in some massive clunkers, but let me throw a few of these out to you: Meet the Fockers. Analyze That. Arthur and the Invisibles. Hide and Seek. The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. The difference here is that Pacino's flops are sad, but usually aren't big movies. We can't say the same for De Niro, whose flops are pretty big (honestly, I'm tempted to put both of the De Niro-Stiller comedies on that list, but I know some people would argue). He's the kind of actor who thinks he's funny (see his performance as Fearless Leader in Rocky and Bullwinkle for proof), but doesn't have enough friends with the stones to tell him that...no, he's really not funny.

His performance in Stardust was odd, and funny, but I'm not sure I laughed for the right reasons. It's an underrated movie, but do I need to see Jake La Motta dancing to the can-can in a feather boa and dress? The rest of his future is relatively dim; he's got a movie called Little Fockers coming out, which means that he still hasn't learned his lessons; aside from that, his IMDb page isn't so descriptive. Hopefully, De Niro can find another serious role to take, something that requires a bit of a challenge, not just an easy payday. I'd rather have a 21st-century role to cherish alongside the classics from the '70s and '80s, but I'm not so sure he can back away from the big bucks.

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