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