Review: ‘Righteous Kill’

Ram-Man:

When you tell me that Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino are in a cop thriller involving a serial killer, I am the first guy in line to see it! jon Avnet (Less than Zero, Risky Business) has team the two acting icons again to tell the story of New York street justice and what happens when the system fails and all that is left is the judgement of NY’s finest in Righteous Kill.

New York police detectives Turk and Rooster (DeNiro, Pacino), have been partners for most of their 30 years on the force, respond to a domestic violence case that changes them forever. A ten year old girl was beaten to death by her mom’s drunken boyfriend, Charles Randall. The mother in fear for her life, provides and alibi for the boyfriend and he walks on the murder charge. This doesn’t sit well with Turk, so he plants a gun at Randall’s house. Charles Randall then goes away, just not for the crime he committed. Rooster, knowing everything, keep his mouth shut because that’s what partners do.

Soon after, more “bad” guys begin to drop. A serial killer known only as the “poetry killer” because he leaves a poem and the murder weapon at the scene of each of the executions.   The thing these murders have in common, all of the victims are criminals that have fallen through the cracks in the justice system and have walked on the crime they were accused of. They also have a tie in some way to Turk.  LT. Hingis  (Brian Dennehy) assigns Turk and Rooster to head-up a team of detective from two precincts to find this vigilante before he can kill anyone else. The team consisting of Turks main squeeze: forensic officer Karen Correlli ( Carla Gugino from Sin City), Det. Ted Riley (Donnie Wahlberg) and Karen’s ex Det. Simon Perez (John Leguizamo) which provides some added pressure to Turk. As more criminals turn up, the team begins to feel this is one of their own, a cop either on the job or retired, wasting the scum of society. Turk wont believe it. As the team begins to dig into the evidence they begin to look at the Randall case and begin to think that the killer could actually be Turk!

Righteous Kill also stars Curtis Jackson or as he commonly known “50 Cent” as Spider the drug-dealing club owner under investigation by Turk. Spider tries to help send the final nail into Turk’s coffin only to end up face to face with the Poetry Killer. Righteous Kill is by no way in the league of such classics like the Godfather 2 and Heat, but Anvet does tell and entertaining and twisted thriller that is loaded with gruesome murders, some sexual innuendo and enough turns in the film to have you changing your mind about the killer numerous times before the film is over. Take a shot with Righteous Kill, DeNiro and Pacino will entertain you and give you back the 88 minutes Al robbed us of earlier in the year!

[rating:3.25/5]

Jeremy:

People just love to hold onto the standards of those who once were great.   It’s hard to watch someone who used to have it grow older and start to lose it.   As a wrestling fan, it was hard to watch Ric Flair wrestle his last couple of matches.   His body simply wouldn’t allow him to do the things he once could.   It’s hard to watch a movie like ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ and watch Harrison Ford make obligatory cracks about how easy it “used to be”.   The legendary actors Al Pacino and Robert De Niro (68 and 65, respectively) have always been driving forces in whatever film they’ve chosen to do.   In recent years, those choices haven’t been the most commendable.   Since ‘Heat’, a milestone in each of their careers, they have been in a combined 42 films.   Some have been good, but for every ‘Ronin’ or ‘The Insider’, there are two or three ‘The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle’s or ‘S1m0ne’s.

It was a big deal back in ’95 that the two were starring in their first film since ‘The Godfather II’.   In ‘Heat’, the two only had two scenes together, but their combined force made the film a huge success, moreso critically than financially.   With ‘Righteous Kill’, the two share much more than just two scenes together.   Most of the film has the two kicking dialogue back and forth like Beckham with a soccer ball.   It may just be a case of too much of a good thing can make it sour.   There is some good to the film, but there is something missing throughout.

Jon Avnet, the director, also directed Pacino’s stinker, ’88 Minutes’.   That film just felt stale and rehashed from so many better films.   ‘Righteous Kill’ feels much the same way for the most part.

A serial killer is killing other killers who got off on technicalities.   The serial killer turns out to be a cop.   ‘Dexter’ is doing this so much better, it’s laughable.   The pacing of the film is way off.   Many scenes seem to have been thrown in just to push the film to feature length.   Trust me, this is a 30-minute story stretched out to 100 minutes.   Another aspect that just seemed thrown in for no reason was this idea of De Niro narrating over most of the film.   The film is told in flashback from a bookending scene where De Niro says he’s the one responsible for murders.   It’s not a spoiler.   It happens five minutes in.

But, if you’ve seen more than a handful of movies, you know full well that the whole “unreliable narrator” is a standard when it comes to mysteries like this.   Look at ‘The Usual Suspects’ for a brilliant usage of this element.   It has no place being in ‘Righteous Kill’ other than to “swerve” the audience when the finale comes.   It is just downright annoying if you are able to figure out who the real killer is, which really isn’t that difficult.

De Niro, unfortunately, has really lost a step or two in the last few years.   He’s just not the presence he was in films like ‘Goodfellas’ or ‘Cape Fear’.   It seems he really needs a gifted director to push him above the bare minimum.   Avnet, apparently, isn’t up to the task.   De Niro kind of mumbles his way through his lines, goes through the motions, and just feels out of place altogether.

Pacino, on the other hand, is the shining light of the whole movie.   In recent years, he’s become the “yeller”, and most of his films feature finales that have him scream exposition for about 20 minutes.   That’s not the case here, and it is awesome to see the subtle Pacino turn in a great performance once again.

Take away De Niro and Pacino, and ‘Righteous Kill’ is a straight-to-dvd movie probably starring James Caan and James Woods, two other great actors who recently haven’t been hitting it big.   The whole ‘De Niro/Pacino’ thing, when coupled with a movie this standard and stock, ends up looking like just a novelty that probably should never have been.   ‘Righteous Kill’ is not a horrible film, by any means, but with the history its two stars bring to the table, it should have been much better.

[rating:2.5/5]