Believe it or not, Joe Pesci was only in 30 films in the span of his film career.
Most of the time he was cast as the short and obnoxious (sometimes lethal) counterpart to bigger name stars like Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, or his pal Robert Deniro. What the man lacks in stature, he always made up for with wit and a careless abandon that threw him in to what ever outrageous role he was portraying. Through casual conversation last night we realized that Joe Pesci has totally disappeared from the film circuit.When doing a little bit of looking at IMDB, it was rather amusing to realize that the man has only been in 5 movies since Casino, two of which were low budget comedic flops that no one paid to see. This seemed odd. What's even more strange is that the last movie he made was a dreadful direct to video flop called Love Ranch co-starring a misplaced Helen Mirren. Neither of them belonged in this flick.
Pesci was one of the defining factors behind two of the best gangster movies ever made. Goodfellas and Casino are two of the most revered genre pics in the history of cinema, and suddenly he relegated himself to terrible movies. Why, you ask? Well, money of course. From what we've read, although his last few pictures were not major hits, Pesci has steep demands where pay is considered and production companies are willing to pay his exorbitant fees although he's always been more so a support player.
Don't get us wrong. We're not complaining. We would just like to see him do a couple more movies that suit his brash style of over the top, annoying, and hyper violent characters before he completely disappears for good. His last attempt was a support role in a Gotti movie in 2011. It fell apart before production started due to legal entanglements.
What the world needs now is more Joe Pesci. We need you now more than ever.
-CG