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Righteous Kill Our rating: Your rating:   MPAA rating: R (for violence, pervasive language, some sexuality, and brief drug use) Genre: Crime, Drama Theater release: September 12, 2008 by Overture Films Directed by: Jon Avnet Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes Cast: Robert De Niro (Det. David "Turk" Fisk), Al Pacino (Det. Thomas "Rooster" Cowan), Carla Gugino (Karen Corelli), Donnie Wahlberg (Det. Ted Riley), John Leguizamo (Det. Simon Perez), Curtis Jackson (Spider), Brian Dennehy (Lt. Hingis), Trilby Glover (Jessica) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino—both originally from New York City, both about the same age, both made their film debut around the same time, and both considered legends among American actors. Yet it's taken them this long in their 40-year careers to finally star in a film together.

Oh sure, they've been in the same movie before. There was The Godfather, Part II back in 1974, but they never actually shared any screen time. Then there was Heat in 1995, but they only had two scenes together, one with dialogue.

So at last there's Righteous Kill, though the crime drama wasn't originally intended for both aging veterans. De Niro's co-star was meant to be a younger cop to play off his older partner, but De Niro suggested Pacino, and the part was rewritten slightly. Naturally, director Jon Avnet (Fried Green Tomatoes, Red Corner) and screenwriter Russell Gewirtz (Inside Man) were game, and why not? Movie fans want to this movie to succeed for its iconic pairing.

De Niro and Pacino in a buddy cop movie, sort of

Alas, here's proof again that a strong cast alone is not enough to make a strong movie. Keep in mind that both actors have been sliding for years now. Anyone see De Niro in Hide and Seek? Painful. Or Pacino in 88 Minutes (also directed by Avnet)? Equally bad. Righteous Kill aspires to the gritty cop dramas from Sidney Lumet in the '70s, as well as the nebulous noir of Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects, but it struggles to rise above direct-to-video fare.

Here's betting most viewers won't know what to make of Righteous Kill, because it never really settles into a groove for the first reel. The choppy editing of the opening credits attempt to set this up as a buddy cop film, like Tango & Cash meets Grumpy Old Men. NYPD detectives David "Turk" Fisk (De Niro) and Thomas "Rooster" Cowan (Pacino) shoot target practice together, they work out together, they catch the bad guys, they joke—the best of friends, they're all cop and all New York.

Then the film takes an odd twist. With shades of Clive Owen's opening from Inside Man, we see Internal Affairs viewing grainy video footage of Turk confessing that he's the one responsible for a recent series of vigilante killings, targeting criminals acquitted of murder, drug dealing, and other crimes. Yet as we hear the confession (presumably present day), we also see Turk and Rooster on the job leading a drug bust (days or weeks before?). Bits and pieces of Turk's confession are sprinkled throughout the first half, usually accompanying the murders as they happen, along with the four-line poem that the killer leaves as a calling card with each victim.

Carla Gugino has a thing for De Niro's character

Clearly everything is not as it seems. Either the film is admitting that Turk is the bad guy from the start, or else someone is framing him. Or maybe it's someone in a really good De Niro mask. Or maybe we're meant to think Turk is being framed when he really is the bad guy. Loaded with misdirection, it's a play off the conventional catch-the-killer cop movie, where we determine the identity of the bad guy by also questioning the identity of the good guy.

Intriguing? It could have been with a better script and more likable characters. But a shadow is cast over our two heroes from the beginning when we learn that they planted evidence to ensure an acquitted child killer would go to prison. With that motive in play, we know that either Turk or Rooster could be the culprit from the get go. If that weren't enough, Turk is having kinky rough sex with forensics expert Karen Corelli (Carla Gugino) on the side, and the two veterans are teamed with two younger detectives (played by Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguizamo) who are even less likable. Many viewers won't find enough of a rooting interest in any of these characters to care what happens.

John Leguizamo and Donnie Wahlberg

Many story details play out far too conventionally. The failed drug bust that becomes a shootout, the renegade cops chewed out by the gruff police lieutenant (Brian Dennehy), and oh yes, there's even the pedophile priest who gets his comeuppance as one of the killer's victims. (Seriously, Hollywood writers, can you be any less imaginative and more unfair to the church?)

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