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One of Robert De Niro’s worst movies is in the Netflix top 10

One of the worst movies Robert De Niro ever made (and he's made a few stinkers) is in the Netflix top 10 and we're starting to wonder if we're wrong about it.

Robert De Niro in Bad Grandpa

I once came from a long day toiling in the journalism mies to find my roommate sitting down to watch a Robert De Niro movie. But which Robert De Niro film was it? After all, there are so many to choose from. He’s one of our greatest living actors who’s made some of the best movies ever.

It was Dirty Grandpa. The so-called comedy movie stars the always lovable Zac Efron as Jason Kelly, an uptight lawyer who finds himself saddled with his lecherous grandad (De Niro is the titular dirty grandfather), and hijinks ensue.

Well, I say hijinks, Dirty Grandpa’s the cinematic equivalent of finding an unwrapped hard candy in your coat pocket. It’s gross, depressing, and sticky. It’s literally one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, with a generous 10% on Rotten Tomatoes. Needless to say, my roommate loved it.

It turns out, though, that my roommate may have been on the right side of history (he definitely wasn’t), as around the world, between May 29 and June 4, 5.5 million people have sat down to watch this trash bag of a film. That’s a lot of people who’ve either been misled by Netflix‘s algorithm or just really like jokes about old people having sex.

We’ll never know because I don’t want to find out. In case you were wondering what the worst Robert De Niro movies are, by the way, I have a list to hand.

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The worst Robert De Niro movies

  • The War With Grandpa
  • Dirty Grandpa
  • Little Fockers
  • Righteous Kill
  • Joker

Sorry Joker fans, you know we’re right. Anyway, there’s actually a fun theory that you can track the exact moment De Niro went from a go-to prestige actor to, well, the kind of guy who’s made two films about grandpas. According to James Chapman, who devised the handy diagram below. It began in 2002 with the release of Analyze This.

Robert De Niro bad graph

Still, De Niro’s still got the juice, and we occasionally get a great movie like Silver Linings Playbook, The Irishman, or The Intern. Yes, I like The Intern. I will not be taking questions at this time.

De Niro’s got a new film on the way, which reunites him with one of the best directors of his generation, Martin Scorsese. Learn more about the Killers of the Flower Moon release date here. We’ve also got a list of all the great new movies coming later this year.