Lively, entertaining reviews of, and essays on, old and newer films and everything relating to them, written by professional author William Schoell.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

RIGHTEOUS KILL

De Niro and Pacino
RIGHTEOUS KILL (2008). Director: Jon Avnet.

Homicide detectives Turk (Robert De Niro) and Rooster (Al Pacino) try to discover whoever it is who is murdering sociopaths and low lives. One of the detectives narrates the story in flashback, sort of stripping the film of suspense -- the twist at the end comes a little too late. It's a great idea to combine Al Pacino and Robert De Niro [Raging Bull] in the same movie, as they were in the excellent Heat, but someone should have come up with a workable script. Righteous Kill is far-fetched and may have the members of the audience scratching their heads at the ending. John Leguizamo and Donnie Wahlberg are wasted as younger smart-alec detectives, Brian Dennehy [The Challenger Disaster] has some good moments as the cop boss, and Carla Gugino has a thankless role as a fellow detective who is also sleeping with Turk. Avet also directed 88 Minutes, which is better than this.

Verdict: Poor suspense film. **.

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