Night And The City (1992)

An ambulance chasing shyster (Robert De Niro), with big dreams of making a quick buck, decides to take revenge on the racketeer (Alan King) who humiliated him in court by conning the mobster's brother (Jack Warden) into fronting a boxing promotion. In an attempt to raise the money, he borrows from his married mistress (Jessica Lange in a rare bad performance) with a very jealous husband (Cliff Gorman). Directed by Irwin Winkler, better known as a producer (he won an Oscar for ROCKY) rather than a director, and based on the 1950 Jules Dassin film noir, the film is a travesty of the original. Even if the Dassin film had never existed, this would still be a poor film. Winkler didn't even have the guts to go with the original film's dark ending, ending here instead with a stupid everything will turn out all right finale. De Niro plays it like a doofus, a clown and he overdoes it. Even the smallest gesture becomes a tic until he's no longer a recognizable human being. He's downright repulsive and it makes no sense that Lange's character would be in love with him when she obviously can do so much better. The most interesting relationship (and the best performances) in the film is the antagonistic relationship between the two brothers, King and Warden. With Eli Wallach and Regis Philbin.