The Godfather (1972)


Genre: Drama, Thriller  
Year: 1972 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 175min  
Director: Francis Ford Coppola  
Writer: Mario Puzo, Mario Puzo  
Cast:   Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard S. Castellano, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro 
 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/

The story begins as "Don" Vito Corleone, the head of a New York Mafia "family", oversees his daughter's wedding. His beloved son Michael has just come home from the war, but does not intend to become part of his father's business. Through Michael's life the nature of the family business becomes clear. The business of the family is just like the head of the family, kind and benevolent to those who give respect, but given to ruthless violence whenever anything stands against the good of the family. Don Vito lives his life in the way of the old country, but times are changing and some don't want to follow the old ways and look out for community and "family". An up and coming rival of the Corleone family wants to start selling drugs in New York, and needs the Don's influence to further his plan. The clash of the Don's fading old world values and the new ways will demand a terrible price, especially from Michael, all for the sake of the family.






The Godfather: Part II (1974)


Genre: Drama, Thriller 
Year: 1974 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 200min  
Director: Francis Ford Coppola  
Writer: Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola  
Cast:   Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro, John Cazale, Talia Shire, Richard Bright 
 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071562/

The continuing saga of the Corleone crime family tells the story of a young Vito Corleone growing up in Sicily and in 1910s New York; and follows Michael Corleone in the 1950s as he attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.
 


Taxi Driver (1976)


Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller 
Year: 1976 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 110min  
Director: Martin Scorsese  
Writer: Paul Schrader  
Cast:   Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks 
 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075314/
New York City cab driver Travis Bickle constantly, almost obsessively, reflects on the ugly corruption of life around him, and becomes increasingly disturbed over his own loneliness and alienation. In nearly every phase of his life, Bickle remains a complete outsider, failing to make emotional contact with anyone. Unable to sleep night after night, Travis haunts the local pornography emporiums to find diversion, and begins desperately thinking about an escape from his depressing existence.






The Deer Hunter (197


Genre: Drama, War 
Year: 1978 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 182min  
Director: Michael Cimino 
Writer: Michael Cimino, Deric Washburn  
Cast:   Robert De Niro, John Cazale, John Savage, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, Rutanya Alda 
 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077416/

Michael, Steven and Nick are young factory workers from Pennsylvania who enlist into the Army to fight in Vietnam. Before they go, Steven marries the pregnant Angela and their wedding-party is also the men's farewell party. After some time and many horrors the three friends fall in the hands of the Vietcong and are brought to a prison camp in which they are forced to play Russian roulette against each other. Michael makes it possible for them to escape, but they soon get separated again. 







Raging Bull (1980)

Genre: Biography, Drama, Sport 
Year: 1980 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 129min  
Director: Martin Scorsese  
Writer: Jake LaMotta, Joseph Carter  
Cast:   Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana 
 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081398/

When Jake LaMotta steps into a boxing ring and obliterates his opponent, he's a prizefighter portrayed in this Martin Scorsese film by Robert De Niro. But when he treats his family and friends the same way, he's a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any moment. Though LaMotta wants his family's love, something always seems to come between them. Perhaps it's his violent bouts of paranoia and jealousy. This kind of rage helped make him a champ, but in real life, he winds up in the ring alone. If you never thought boxing cinematography could be breathtaking, check out Michael Chapman's handiwork.








Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Genre: Crime, Drama 
Year: 1984 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 139min  
Director: Sergio Leone  
Writer: Harry Grey, Leonardo Benvenuti  
Cast:   Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Tuesday Weld, Treat Williams, Joe Pesci, Danny Aiello, Burt Young  
 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087843/

Epic, episodic, tale of the lives of a small group of New York City Jewish gangsters spanning over 40 years. Told mostly in flashbacks and flash-forwards, the movie centers on small-time hood David 'Noodles' Aaronson and his lifelong partners in crime; Max, Cockeye and Patsy and their friends from growing up in the rough Jewish neighborhood of New York's Lower East Side in the 1920s, to the last years of Prohibition in the early 1930s, and then to the late 1960s where an elderly Noodles returns to New York after many years in hiding to look into the past. 








Angel Heart (1987)

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller 
Year: 1987 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 113min  
Director: Alan Parker  
Writer: Alan Parker, William Hjortsberg  
Cast:   Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet, Charlotte Rampling, Judith Drake, Stocker Fontelieu, Brownie McGhee,  
 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092563/

Harry Angel is a private investigator. He is hired by a man who calls himself Louis Cyphre to track down a singer called Johnny Favorite. But the investigation takes an unexpected and somber turn.









Goodfellas (1990)

Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama 
Year: 1990 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 195min  
Director: Martin Scorsese  
Writer: Nicholas Pileggi  
Cast:   Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino, Frank Sivero, Tony Darrow, Mike Starr     
 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099685/

"As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster." -- Henry Hill, Brooklyn, N.Y. 1955.






A Bronx Tale (1993)

Genre: Crime, Drama 
Year: 1993 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 121min  
Director: Robert De Niro  
Writer: Chazz Palminteri  
Cast:   Robert De Niro, Chazz Palminteri, Lillo Brancato, Francis Capra, Kathrine Narducci, Joe Pesci  
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106489/

Gangster Sonny is the big man in Calogero's Bronx neighborhood. A shooting witnessed by Calogero is the starting point of a lasting bond between the gangster and the small boy. Father (bus driver Lorenzo), however, disap- proves. Calogero grows up under the wings of both men, torn between his own natural honesty and his fascination with Sonny. C's neighborhood cronies get involved in theft, use of guns, racial fights. When C meets girl, things don't become easier. C's leap to manhood is marked by tragedy, but also by his recognition of the many faces of love.







Casino (1995)

Genre: Crime / Drama 
Year: 1995 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 175min  
Director: Martin Scorsese  
Writer: Nicholas Pileggi 
Cast:   Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods, Frank Vincent, Kevin Pollak, Don Rickles  
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112641/

This Martin Scorsese film depicts the Janus-like quality of Las Vegas--it has a glittering, glamorous face, as well as a brutal, cruel one. Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro, mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark, live and work in this paradoxical world. Seen through their eyes, each as a foil to the other, the details of mob involvement in the casinos of the 1970's and '80's are revealed. Ace is the smooth operator of the Tangiers casino, while Nicky is his boyhood friend and tough strongman, robbing and shaking down the locals. However, they each have a tragic flaw--Ace falls in love with a hustler, Ginger, and Nicky falls into an ever-deepening spiral of drugs and violence.









Heat (1995)

Genre: Crime / Drama 
Year: 1995 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 171min  
Director: Michael Mann  
Writer: Michael Mann  
Cast:   Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Diane Venora, Amy Brenneman, Ashley Judd,   
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113277/

Neil McCauley is a thief... an expert thief... one of the best. His philosophy in life - become attached to nothing in life that you can't walk away from in 30 seconds if you spot the "Heat" around the corner. His crew of criminals is a high-tech outfit pulling off professional jobs that impress even the likes of Detective Vincent Hanna. But Hanna, a man driven through life only by his work, becomes obsessed, at the expense of his private life, with bringing McCauley down. As McCauley's crew prepare for the score of a lifetime, and Hanna's team tries to bring him in, the two find that they are challenged by the greatest minds on the opposite side of the law that either one has ever encountered.







Ronin (1999)

Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller 
Year: 1998 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 116min  
Director: John Frankenheimer  
Writer: JJ.D. Zeik  
Cast:   Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgard, Sean Bean, Jonathan Pryce, Ron Perkins  
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122690/

Ronin is the Japanese word used for Samurai without a master. In this case, the Ronin are outcast specialists of every kind, whose services are available to everyone - for money. Dierdre (undoubtedly from Ireland) hires several Ronin to form a team in order to retrieve an important suitcase from a man who is about to sell it to the Russians. After the mission has been completed successfully, the suitcase immediately gets switched by a member of the team who seems to work into his own pocket. The complex net of everyone tricking everyone begins to surface slowly, and deadly...






Meet the Parents (2000)

Genre: Comedy, Romance 
Year: 2000 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 107min  
Director: Jay Roach  
Writer: Greg Glienna, Mary Ruth Clarke  
Cast:   Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Teri Polo, Blythe Danner, Nicole DeHuff, Jon Abrahams, Owen Wilson  
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212338/

A Jewish male nurse (Ben Stiller) plans to ask his live-in girl friend (Teri Polo) to marry him. However, he learns that her strict father (Robert DeNiro) expects to be asked for his daughter's hand before she can accept. Thus begins the visit from Hell as the two travel to meet Mom (Blythe Danner) and Dad, who turns out to be former CIA with a lie detector in the basement. Coincidentally, a sister (Nicole DeHuff) also has announced her wedding to a young doctor (Thomas McCarthy). Of course everything that can go wrong, does, including the disappearance of Dad's beloved Himalayan cat, Jinxie.







Meet the Fockers (2004)

Genre: Comedy, Romance 
Year: 2004 
Country: USA 
Runtime: 110min  
Director: Jay Roach  
Writer: Greg Glienna, Mary Ruth Clarke  
Cast:   Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Owen Wilson  
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290002/


Having given permission to male nurse Greg Focker to marry his daughter, ex-CIA man Jack Byrnes and his wife travel to Miami to Greg's parents, who this time around are Mr. and Mrs. Focker, who are as different from them as can be. As asked in the first movie, what sort of people name their son Gaylord M. Focker?