De Niro's taste for knockabout comedy has landed him in critical hot water, particularly in his later years, but was never more well-judged than in Martin Brest's riotous action farce. The actor took on the project after trying and failing to secure Tom Hanks's role in "Big," but this seems the snugger fit for his rumpled, wary persona. As a cop turned bounty hunter, criss-crossing the US with crooked accountant Charles Grodin in tow, he plays it straight but spry, letting the laughs come to him -- then volleying them in an improbably productive chemistry experiment with the more manic Grodin. 

Nomination: Best Actor (Musical or Comedy), Golden Globes