Righteous Kill Review

Published by Jeff Leins on: September 14th, 2008

Righteous Kill is a bad movie made worse by the overshadowing reunion of legendary actors Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.

Both men are about the same age (65 and 68, respectively) and have 40+ year careers in the movie industry. But they’ve never been in a movie together. The two actors were in Godfather II, but decades separated their characters. Then they briefly appeared across from each other in the 1995 crime thriller Heat, never actually sharing a single frame.

Unfortunately, the anticipated pairing of the film icons comes at a time when their careers seem to be sliding. De Niro has been cursed with hokey roles since he agreed to Rocky and Bullwinkle in 2000 and Pacino’s recent 88 Minutes was his first ever direct-to-DVD release before somehow making its way out to unsuspecting theaters last April (available Tuesday on Blu-ray!).

Which is why Righteous Kill is bittersweet. They’re finally together on screen, but it’s in a tired, predictable movie which would have been fast tracked to the bargain bin without these two names attached. Al and Bobby trudge around in a trodden plot intensely growling poorly written lines at each other and the recognizable supporting cast. But the familiar faces of Gugino, Leguizamo, Wahlberg, and Dennehy played more like a chance for stars to work with the two before they retired. With such a strong cast it had the potential to be a high note for a slew of careers instead of a squandered opportunity for greatness.

The good news is Pacino and De Niro are together a lot. The bad news is it’s entirely too much. “Rooster” and “Turk” do everything together. They shoot target practice. They work out together. They play chess. They drink. They work. It’s like an old married couple, only they’re essentially the same grumpy old man gruffly defending the other.

Pacino and De Niro play two New York City homicide detectives investigating a serial murderer of bad guys who escaped prosecution. When another cop team joins the investigation, the new detectives start to suspect the killer is one of their own. But the audience already knows that because the suspense was sucked out in the opening minutes when a character confessed to everything.

In one scene a counselor asks the two “loose cannons” if they have considered retirement, a question that should be posed to the actors as much as the characters. Pacino’s Rooster calls it “death with benefits.” That’s the kind of clever writing these two signed on to deliver.

But their one-dimensional characters aren’t elevated by anything the veteran actors do. Pacino and De Niro seem to be doing impressions of themselves, an over-the-top screamer and an intense frowner, while receiving no direction. It was shot so sloppily, I was focused on the two men as actors and not the cliche characters they lazily played.

Jon Avnet, who also helmed the previously mentioned 88 Minutes disaster, makes all the wrong decisions, diffusing the possible mystery with an early videotaped confession followed by a weak misdirection twist. He doesn’t seem to know how to pace a film either, slowing the action sequences and rushing the scenes audiences paid to see.

But he did cast 50 Cent in the movie, so there’s that. He goes by Curtis Jackson now, but “Fiddy” is still a rapper turned actor, and a bad one at that. His unnatural presence is a prime example of how this movie was mishandled, a glaringly awful choice to appear across from either actors, fading or not. In fact, 50 Cent probably shouldn’t be in any scenes in any movie.

I know I focused on the central actors in this review, but like them I wasn’t given much to work with. Righteous Kill is a familiar cop drama with frustrating elements of boredom and poor direction. I recommend you rewatch Heat again and savor the precious moments when the icons collide.

2 out of 5.