Night and the City (1992 film) De Niro's work as "more like a riff on Rupert Pupkin, the goofy talk show fan he played in Scorsese's "The King of Comedy"". Ebert and Howe both agreed, however, that Alan King's performance was fantastic. Owen Gleiberman concurred in his review, but he sided with Ebert regarding De Niro, concluding, "the actor who once seemed the heir to Brando, Clift, and, yes, Widmark — the actor who once got so far inside his roles that he just about detonated the screen — now plays characters who don't seem to have any inner life at all." David Ansen praised the
Robert De Niro the 15th Moscow International Film Festival. He appeared in "This Boy's Life" (1993). Around this time, he was offered the role of Mitch Leary in "In the Line of Fire" (1993). However, due to scheduling conflicts with his directorial debut "A Bronx Tale" (1993), he gave up the role to John Malkovich, who later received an Academy Award nomination for it. In "A Bronx Tale", which De Niro agreed to direct after seeing the screenwriter's one-man off-Broadway play, he played a bus driver who struggles to keep his son away from a local mobster. At the 20th Moscow International Film