Seen on: September 12, 2008

The players: Director: Jon Avnet, Writer: Russell Gewirtz, Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, 50 Cent, Donnie Wahlberg, Carla Gugino

Facts of interest: Jon Avnet also directed "88 Minutes."

The plot: Turk and Rooster are two NYPD detectives who head out to track down a serial killer. Strangely enough, all of his victims are bad guys who managed to escape the law.

Our quick thoughts: Although I totally hated Jon Avnet’s previous flick “88 Minutes,” I didn’t expect the worst walking into his latest crime drama “Righteous Kill.” After all, I don’t think anyone would want to deliberately mess up a film that stars both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the lead roles, right? But let’s not get too excited too quickly.

Unfortunately, I now wish I went into this movie with much lower expectations. I do agree “Kill” is not a total disaster, but it’s not a particularly intriguing experience either. Instead, it’s nothing but a forgettable effort that features a couple of entertaining moments but ultimately fails to build a solid intrigue and inject its story with enough suspense.

I certainly don’t want to spoil anything, so I will keep my description of the story line to a minimum. What you should know is that Pacino and De Niro star as veteran NYPD detectives Turk and Rooster, who are trying to hunt down a serial killer. The unusual aspect of the case is that the victims are all bad guys who’ve somehow gotten away with the crimes they committed.

It’s hard to believe that Russell Gewirtz, the man who wrote the brilliant screenplay for Spike Lee’s “Inside Man,” would ever be capable of generating such a monotonous and unsurprising script. But that’s all you get in “Righteous Kill.” Lacking the suspense you would usually expect in a flick of this genre, the plot operates at a slow pace without ever producing anything worth devoting your interest to.

Much of what you see in this movie may be decent enough material for a television show, but for the big screen, it’s too shallow and dragging. Gewritz obviously tries to mislead audiences early on in his script, but in the end, the outcome of the whole intrigue is neither puzzling nor creative. No, Gewritz does everything the book, believing he could fool everybody by wrapping up his story with a ridiculous twist.

   

And what do our protagonists get to do during the more or less boring 101 minutes? Well, for most of the time, they get to engage into several pointless discussions. Pacino and De Niro are supplied with some efficient one-liners, but then again, they don’t say much that would make them particularly fascinating characters.

So what about Pacino and De Niro? Can they somehow make up for the weakness of the script? Yes and no. Pacino and De Niro both have the experience to at least try and make the best out of a bad situation, but there is only so much an actor can do with a flawed script. That said, they do succeed in creating some strong moments together in front of the camera.

Freaky quote: “Most people respect the badge. Everyone respects the gun." – Robert De Niro

The final word: I sure wanted “Righteous Kill” to be a good movie, and I sure gave it a fair chance. Although it’s quite an improvement on Avnet’s previous disappointment, it still failed to captivate me. I really loved the idea of De Niro and Pacino together in front of the camera, but I feel this was just not the right film for them. Watch “Heat” again instead.        

Article by Franck Tabouring