Review: Righteous Kill

Righteous Kill

OPENING: 09/12/2008

STUDIO: Overture Films

TRAILER: Trailer

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

The Charge
Most people respect the badge. Everybody respects the gun.

The Case
Recently, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro appeared together on The Late Show with David Letterman, doing Dave’s famous top ten countdown. They were promoting the new Jon Avnet film, Righteous Kill, which unites the two acting legends for the first time since heat. Jon Avnet’s previous film was 88 Minutes, which starred Pacino. It was a film so terribly disappointing that I could barely bring myself to talk about it, and I gave you ten reasons not to see it. Sadly, I feel almost the same way about Righteous Kill, and will resort to pulling out the ten-item list once again. So, without further ado, ten reasons not to see Righteous Kill.


10. The plot, written by the scribe of Inside Man, is more or less the plot of Inside Man. Only this time, it’s less interesting and a lot more obvious. I saw the big plot twist coming within the first ten minutes.

9. Jon Avnet’s direction is sloppy and frequently incoherent, relying way too much on tired visual tricks and slow-motion sequences.

8. The character played by Carla Gugino is one of the most poorly-drawn characters I have seen onscreen since the villain in 88 Minutes. Also, a supposedly “shocking” late scene involving her character makes no sense whatsoever.

7. The usually talented Edward Shearmur provides a droning and monotonous score that makes this movie feel very much like the tired thriller it is.

6. The interaction between Pacino and De Niro often grows much too precious for its own good. Despite all the murder and violence, Righteous Kill comes very close to feeling like an R-rated Grumpy Old Men.

5. The supporting cast, featuring such eclectic members as Donnie Wahlberg, John Leguizamo, and Curtis Jackson (aka 50 Cent), has nothing of interest to do. They’re just hanging around, mostly.

4. The noir-style narration provided by De Niro feels forced and hammy, like a 13-year-old impersonating a Raymond Chandler novel.

3. Any moments of humor or wit the film contains are completely buried beneath a pile of weary cinematic theatrics and much-too-serious sound design.

2. If this film did not star Al Pacino or Robert De Niro, I have no doubt that it would have had a great deal of trouble actually securing a theatrical release. It feels like straight-to-video material.

1. Pacino and De Niro have collaborated before. In The Godfather Part II, they were never onscreen together. The film was great. In Heat, they only shared two brief scenes. The film was great. Here, they’re together nearly the entire time. The results are disastrous. Maybe once each actor realized that the other was going to sleepwalk through the entire film, they decided to take the same course of action. Tom Hanks and Wilson had more magnetic chemistry than these two legends do in Righteous Kill. Unless Martin Scorsese is behind the camera next time, I don’t think these two ought to be paired up ever again. I can only hope that they haven’t thrown in the towel on credible acting forever. In the meantime, please skip Righteous Kill, if you want to keep thinking of Pacino and De Niro as cinematic geniuses.

The Verdict

3/10

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