Movie Info
Movie Year:
Cast:
Robert De Niro
,
Al Pacino
,
Carla Gugino
,
John Leguizamo
,
Donnie Wahlberg
,
Brian Dennehy
,
Melissa Leo
,
Oleg Taktarov
,
50 Cent
,
Trilby Glover
,
Alan Rosenberg
,
Sterling K. Brown
,
Barry Primus
,
Alan Blumenfeld
,
Shirly Brener
,
Saidah Arrika Ekulona
Screenplay:
Russell Gewirtz
Genre:
Action/Adventure
Other
Horror/Suspense
Television
Romance
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Thriller
Animation
Comedy
Documentary
Drama
Kids/Family
Studio:
DVD Release:
2009/01/06
Theater Release:
2008/09/12
Blu-ray Release:
2009/01/06
Blu-ray 3D Release:
No release information.
DVD Release:
(ex. 2002/10/21)
Synopsis:
Tagline:
Most people respect the badge. Everybody respects the gun.
Feb 04, 2009
For any true film fan, seeing legends Al Pacino and Robert De Niro on screen together should be one of life’s highest priorities. Yes, they were both ...
For any true film fan, seeing legends Al Pacino and Robert De Niro on screen together should be one of life’s highest priorities. Yes, they were both in The Godfather Part II (where technically De Niro played Pacino’s father) and Heat but they never were on screen together for an extended or satisfying period of time. Along comes Righteous Kill, the film we’ve all been waiting for in order to see these two acting heavyweights team up. It’s for that reason that I find myself inconceivably disappointed by it; not even two of the best actors to have ever lived can save this nonsense.
The film follows two veteran New York detectives working together to catch a serial killer who is killing criminals who have gotten away with murders they have previously been charged with. But what at first seems like a simple enough case soon gets more and more complex as the body count rises and the the search for the killer brings people they never expected under suspicion.
What happened to Robert De Niro and Al Pacino? These used to be two of the most respected men in the business and they have given some of cinema’s all time greatest performances. For Pacino it is The Godfather, Scarface, and Dog Day Afternoon and for De Niro it is Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and The Godfather Part II. So again, what happened to these guys? Save for a couple of roles, and even that may be pushing it, over the last ten years or so they have done crap after crap after crap. Is it the money? Are they riding on the fact that they once were the very best acting had to offer? Are they just lazy? It’s not as if they don’t have the ability to tell the difference between a good and bad project and yet they seem to contribute to the latter far too often.
You’d surely think that the combined efforts of such great actors would produce something as outstanding as their legendary status would suggest. But no, largely due to the terrible script this is simply straight to DVD stuff and of no interest whatsoever save for the two leads. Can we give them the benefit of the doubt because of who they are? I think I can stretch to that but it doesn’t mean the movie can be completely forgiven. The dialogue here is some of the worst I’ve heard in months (perhaps years), which surprises me since the script is penned by Russell Gewirtz, who wrote the excellent Inside Man (which was his first feature film script, I might add). So, although the blame for what is so bad about Righteous Kill falls mostly on the script, I can’t see how this writer could have come up with something quite so bad considering his previous effort.
The remaining blame can be put firmly in the lap of director Jon Avnet. He was recently behind the camera working with Pacino on 88 Minutes, a film which almost universally got slammed. So why then does the studio allow this guy to direct another film with Pacino co-starring as one of the leads? I simply have no idea. Avnet doesn’t possess a lick of skill, at least not for this type of crime film anyway. It’s not just mediocre where you could say the director is interchangeable with any other average Joe guy in the business, it's flat-out bad. There’s nothing thrilling, exciting, tense or even gritty as you would hope from a crime/thriller. Instead we get a slick look to it, one which takes away all believability one might hope to gain from this type of film. For me one of the things I love about crime films, especially ones set in New York (see Taxi Driver as a perfect example of this), is how gritty they usually feel, how dirty and realistic they put themselves across to the viewer. But no, everything looks shiny and “factory packaged”, so to speak, and it’s one of the inexcusable crimes that the film commits.
The only remotely believable thing in Righteous Kill is a couple of the supporting actors, Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguizamo. Both aren’t exceptional or anything, certainly not by standards set by them or others who have played similar roles, but they stand out as being better than most other things here (a sad comment when they are rubbing shoulders with two of cinema’s greats). Everyone else, including the usually great Carla Gugino and the absolutely horrible (as an actor) 50 Cent, are superficial, two-dimensional caricatures that even the most inexperienced of film-goers could think up in a few seconds.
The film seems to think that its storyline is something fresh and unique but it’s far from it. Plenty of other films before this have done similar things far better than this does, and the so-called twist at the end (not to give anything away, mind you) is one of the most painfully obvious to come along in years. No one involved, including De Niro and Pacino, does anything to lift the trite story and eye-rolling dialogue off ground zero which results in little worthwhile to be found in Righteous Kill out with a sort of morbid curiosity. And it physically hurts me to say that about a film which finally sees two legendary icons team up. They deserve better than this.
==Written by Ross Miller==
==From: Movie World (www.movie-world.moonfruit.com)==
The film follows two veteran New York detectives working together to catch a serial killer who is killing criminals who have gotten away with murders they have previously been charged with. But what at first seems like a simple enough case soon gets more and more complex as the body count rises and the the search for the killer brings people they never expected under suspicion.
What happened to Robert De Niro and Al Pacino? These used to be two of the most respected men in the business and they have given some of cinema’s all time greatest performances. For Pacino it is The Godfather, Scarface, and Dog Day Afternoon and for De Niro it is Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and The Godfather Part II. So again, what happened to these guys? Save for a couple of roles, and even that may be pushing it, over the last ten years or so they have done crap after crap after crap. Is it the money? Are they riding on the fact that they once were the very best acting had to offer? Are they just lazy? It’s not as if they don’t have the ability to tell the difference between a good and bad project and yet they seem to contribute to the latter far too often.
You’d surely think that the combined efforts of such great actors would produce something as outstanding as their legendary status would suggest. But no, largely due to the terrible script this is simply straight to DVD stuff and of no interest whatsoever save for the two leads. Can we give them the benefit of the doubt because of who they are? I think I can stretch to that but it doesn’t mean the movie can be completely forgiven. The dialogue here is some of the worst I’ve heard in months (perhaps years), which surprises me since the script is penned by Russell Gewirtz, who wrote the excellent Inside Man (which was his first feature film script, I might add). So, although the blame for what is so bad about Righteous Kill falls mostly on the script, I can’t see how this writer could have come up with something quite so bad considering his previous effort.
The remaining blame can be put firmly in the lap of director Jon Avnet. He was recently behind the camera working with Pacino on 88 Minutes, a film which almost universally got slammed. So why then does the studio allow this guy to direct another film with Pacino co-starring as one of the leads? I simply have no idea. Avnet doesn’t possess a lick of skill, at least not for this type of crime film anyway. It’s not just mediocre where you could say the director is interchangeable with any other average Joe guy in the business, it's flat-out bad. There’s nothing thrilling, exciting, tense or even gritty as you would hope from a crime/thriller. Instead we get a slick look to it, one which takes away all believability one might hope to gain from this type of film. For me one of the things I love about crime films, especially ones set in New York (see Taxi Driver as a perfect example of this), is how gritty they usually feel, how dirty and realistic they put themselves across to the viewer. But no, everything looks shiny and “factory packaged”, so to speak, and it’s one of the inexcusable crimes that the film commits.
The only remotely believable thing in Righteous Kill is a couple of the supporting actors, Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguizamo. Both aren’t exceptional or anything, certainly not by standards set by them or others who have played similar roles, but they stand out as being better than most other things here (a sad comment when they are rubbing shoulders with two of cinema’s greats). Everyone else, including the usually great Carla Gugino and the absolutely horrible (as an actor) 50 Cent, are superficial, two-dimensional caricatures that even the most inexperienced of film-goers could think up in a few seconds.
The film seems to think that its storyline is something fresh and unique but it’s far from it. Plenty of other films before this have done similar things far better than this does, and the so-called twist at the end (not to give anything away, mind you) is one of the most painfully obvious to come along in years. No one involved, including De Niro and Pacino, does anything to lift the trite story and eye-rolling dialogue off ground zero which results in little worthwhile to be found in Righteous Kill out with a sort of morbid curiosity. And it physically hurts me to say that about a film which finally sees two legendary icons team up. They deserve better than this.
==Written by Ross Miller==
==From: Movie World (www.movie-world.moonfruit.com)==
Righteous Kill pairs two cinematic icons whose previous screen collaboration, Michael Mann's 1995 Heat, was absolutely electrifying despite minimal time together in a long movie. Now in their mid-60s, De Niro and Pacino are playing veteran cops who, despite being grizzled, should look much younger than these actors. The incongruent casting makes the dark story improbable from the get-go, and things get worse as dialogue by screenwriter Russell Gurwitz quickly sounds like a parody of vintage cop movie cliches. It's a strain to find anything that works. The two leads play longtime detectives and partners whose weariness with rapists, murderers, pedophiles and other villains appears linked to the acts of a serial killer taking out bad guys who got away with heinous crimes. A videotape confession by De Niro's tightly-coiled Turk--who has been seeking the killer with Pacino's Rooster--would seem to establish his ties to the events. But the movie isn't over until it's over, assuming one is still with the movie after plodding along with its facsimile of noir conviction. Director Jon Avnet never gets a handle on Righteous Kill's gritty heart, superficially pushing suspense along with heavy-handed editing, and adding unpersuasive sauce in the form of Turk's somewhat S&M sexual relationship with a female cop (Carla Gugino). Giving the proceedings sort of a boost are Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguizamo as a younger pair of sleuths working the same case. This could easily have been a better movie with those two in the leads.
Movie Disc Details
Disc Version:
Runtime:
100
DVD Region:
1
Disc Type:
DVD
Aspect Ratio:
16:9
Video Format:
MPEG-2
Parental Control:
1
Video Signal:
NTSC
Layers:
2
Subtitles:
English (United States)
Spanish (Spain, Traditional Sort)
Sound Mix:
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital
