Given the formulaic, asinine swill it churns out these days, it's hard to believe how innovative and liberated Hollywood was in the heady days of the 1970s. Not only was it the decade when young, talented filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Robert Altman were given free reign to reinvent American cinema, but it was also the era that arguably produced the country's finest generation of actors. Cream of this talented crop were Robert De Niro and Al Pacino (below), whose method-acting skills, looks and seemingly inexhaustible charisma saw them bestride the decade like a pair of mildly unhinged Italian-American colossi.

Fast-forward 30 years, however, and the landscape has changed. At a time when crass parodies such as the Scary Movie franchise top the box office and the likes of Paul Walker and Martin Lawrence are considered bankable stars, it is hard to imagine Hollywood cinema ever reaching such a high-water mark again. Even De Niro, whose mere presence was once enough to recommend a movie, has let his standards slip to previously unimaginable levels. Barring a couple of neat cameos, De Niro hasn't made a film worthy of his name for more than 10 years, a period, incidentally, that has seen him star in such dross as The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Hide and Seek and Analyze That.

Thank the stars then for Pacino. Apart from a few lean years in the 80s, Pacino has been burning holes in the screen for close to 40 years and, at the age of 67, shows little sign of slowing down, having just signed to star as Salvador Dali in Andrew Niccol's biopic of the surrealist master.