Two movies featuring major stars sharing the silver screen are coming up soon, and I’m looking forward to both of them. I may even need to make it a double feature, since they’re opening on the same night!
A movie pairing that’s been 34 years in the making will finally match two of the biggest Boomer stars on the planet when it debuts on September 12. It was 1974 when Robert De Niro and Al Pacino starred together in “The Godfather, Part II”–although they didn’t have any scenes together. And, as two of the finest and most serious movie stars around, anticipation was high (but unfulfilled) that they’d do another movie together. They’re friends. They’re stars. And they–or at least they used to be–box office gold.
In 1995 they did star in “Heat,” a stylish cops-n-robbers show that’s still worth renting or buying, but they only played two scenes together.
Short of Redford and Newman doing another flick together, this is probably the biggest pairing of classic actors we could hope for. And this time, they’re playing together throughout the movie. In “Righteous Kill,” they play New York cops tracking a serial killer.

The other flick pairs “Ocean’s Eleven” costars George Clooney and Brad Pitt in “Burn After Reading,” with John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand. This is a bit more of an ensemble cast but still a great chance to see Clooney and Pitt together again.
Sequels have become the order of the day in modern movie making, which is great for the box office but has allowed the business to move away from the days where major stars played unique roles in possibly their only chances to play together. Richard Gere and Julia Roberts have done a couple non-sequels together (“Pretty Woman” and “Runaway Bride”), as have Gene Hackman and Delroy Lindo (“Get Shorty” and “The Heist”) and more recently Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman (“Unforgiven” and “Million Dollar Baby”).
But Pacino-De Niro III and Clooney-Pitt IV (after three “Oceans’” movies) will both be fun to look forward to, and I hope they live up to the hype.