The Top Five De Niro or Pacino Performances

5 - Cape Fear (De Niro)

4 - Serpico (Pacino)

3 - The Godfather Part II (Pacino)

2 - Taxi Driver (De Niro)

1 - Raging Bull (De Niro)

It's no surprise that most of the films in this week's Top Five are from the 1970s (OK, so Raging Bull is 1980, but still). De Niro and Pacino, along with Dustin Hoffman, really helped chart a new course for leading men in the movies during this time, and they influenced a couple of generations of actors that have followed them.

It's also not surprising that their autumn years really aren't in our list, nor did any of their performances after 1995 get any nominations; they simply weren't at the head of the class any longer. It doesn't mean they were worse actors after a certain age, just that the roles they took didn't have as much to offer. However, I thought Pacino was damn good in The Insider, which might be the most underrated movie of the past decade, and he was terrific in Insomnia, as well.

De Niro has not given anything resembling his best work in a decade. Going backwards, Jackie Brown is the last valuable contribution he's given, but after 1997, there's nothing. I don't even think you can make an argument for anything after that when you consider that we left Goodfellas, Once Upon a Time in America, and The Deer Hunter off our list.

This is one of the rare lists that doesn't need much explanation. You might substitute something else for Cape Fear, but I'd ask you to watch Cape Fear again, in that case. Maybe you're not a fan of Serpico and think that should be Scarface. To me, Scarface is the beginning of Pacino's ladled on queso, the affectations that make Frank Caliendo's impression so good. He stopped acting around that time and just amped up the crazy. That's why I prefer Serpico. It's also just a better movie.