Righteous Kill

Synopsis

Academy Award winners Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino are back on the big screen together in this psychological thriller. They star as a pair of veteran New York City police detectives working to identify a killer that cleans the streets of suspected criminals who slip through the cracks of our great Judicial System. With evidence building strong, the detectives are now on the trail of a vigilante serial killer that has the profile of a cop.

Review

Yes, DeNiro and Pacino sharing the same screen again. How wonderful it is. These two men are acting legends. YES! I was so excited to get my buttered popcorn and Cherry Coke for this cinematic event. I even got to the theater early to get my favorite seat—the back row in the bottom level, where no feet can kick the back of my chair.

As the film rolled, that earlier YES quickly turned into an ohhhh nooooo. Where’s the action? Where are the plot twists and turns? Where’s the superb dialogue and acting I expected to see? Well, it sure wasn’t in Righteous Kill.

This slow moving story is about two long time partners of the NYPD, Detective Tom “Turk” Cowan (Robert DeNiro, Meet the Parents) and Detective David “Rooster” Fisk (Al Pacino, 88 Minutes) who are on the case of a serial killer who's exterminating evil criminals that escaped going to jail because of our wonderful judicial system. Turk and Rooster work reluctantly with Detectives Riley (Donnie Wahlberg, Saw II, III, IV) and Perez (John Leguizamo, The Happening). The evidence that builds up has the detectives believing that the killer may be a cop. What? A cop who may be a serial killer? Noooo. What a twist.

Whoop de doo.

The movie seems to play on the assumption that we're all idiots, that movies are new to us and we’ve never seen a plot device (read: story line) involving mysterious murders and a chance someone close is the killer. Mmmm.

To all you 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson, Rapper/Actor) lovers, he’s in this flick for a few scenes, but his acting isn’t very good. He seemed like he was reading cue cards or something. He was much better in the movie Get Rich or Die Trying.

Pacino and DeNiro are versatile actors, as we all know, but they do have stock character mannerisms. Have you ever noticed that Pacino always has some long monologue in his movies, ranting about the system of right and wrong? (see Devil’s Advocate, Any Given Sunday) I’m not sure if it’s supposed to get movie goers excited, but his monologue in Righteous is jive, drawn out and makes you roll your eyeballs. And of course DeNiro has to snarl up his face about something and cuss about how he want’s to kick someone’s bootay. DeNiro actually looks like he’s been working out (which freaks me out a bit that the movie allowed me to even make that judgement), but still this can’t mask the fact he’s a bit old to be playing a cop in the field. Both of them look old.

By the third act or last leg of the film, I didn’t even care who the killer was. NBC’s Law and Order SVU has way more excitement, surprises and action than this feature length film. The so-called twists were an insult to my intelligence. Anyhoo, this is a great flick to catch on HBO or if you’re big DeNiro and Pacino fans: rent it because these men are very natural together, but that’s about it. The only thing that thrilled me about this ”thriller” was the end credits.

If these two acting greats weren’t in Righteous Kill, this movie would be like some old timey cop movie from the eighties with some no name old dudes. So tell me—would you’d pay $10 to see that?

Peace and Hair Grease.

My Rating ~ 2 Reels

Audience Rating (What's Yours?)