Righteous Kill

Release Date: September 12th, 2008

Click here for the Righteous Kill Trailer.

NYPD Detectives "Turk"(Robert De Niro) and "Rooster"(Al Pacino) have been partners on the force for over 30 years. After such a long and decorated career in the twisted, run-down streets of New York, the two should be heading for retirement. But before they can hang up their badges, they have one last case to solve. There is a vigilante on the streets taking out pimps, rapists, and drug dealers leaving a small poem explaining himself. All the victims, besides being the low-life of society, have one thing in common, they were all convicted of their crimes and then released by the court system.

Turk and Rooster are assigned by their Lieutenant, Hingis(Brian Dennehy), to the case. They are aided by fellow detectives Perez(John Leguizamo) and Riley(Donnie Wahlberg) as well as Turks girlfriend Detective Corelli(Carla Gugino). Turk and rooster are angered when they are in a court room hearing of an accused rapist and the judge lets him go. Turk threatens the man, telling him to watch his back. A few weeks later, the rapist is found shot to death in his apartment. While discussing the case, Rooster realizes that each victim is shot at close range, with no signs of struggle or forced entry, alluding to the idea that the killer knows each victim. Considering that each victim is a criminal, it is supposed that the killer is a cop. Perez and Riley agree that it is a cop which angers Turk, who doesn't think for one second that it could be a cop.

While trying to investigate the murders, Perez and Riley begin to suspect that the killer is Turk. They try to set him up by having a known drug dealer, Spider(Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson), who Turk and Rooster tried to bust earlier, to lure Turk to his club and confess to something. Turk, however, already knows what is going on and sets up Perez and Riley by embarrassing them when they try to bust him. Perez and Riley leave, and then the true killer is revealed, all ending in a dramatic final confrontation.

When you put two legends like Pacino and De Niro in the same film, you are expecting great things. Sadly, that isn't the case for Righteous Kill. You don't get much better than Pacino and De Niro, the are two of the greatest and most respected actors in the film industry. But even their award-winning acting skills can't make this movie any better than what it was, which wasn't that good. From director John Avnet(Fried Green tomatoes), this movie is a typical cliche good cop/bad cop drama set in the unoriginal setting of the NYPD. While De Niro and Pacino were good in the film, the whole thing was just the same old stuff you would expect to see. There was a good number of A-list stars in the movie but it still didn't make up for the poor story. A killer is killing bad guys and people suspect a cop. That is basically the movie in a nutshell. Being a cop movie, I would have expected a bit more action, i.e. shootouts and gun play. But the only real time you saw any of that was the two or three shots fired into all three of the victims. Aside from the opening scene and a small shootout in a club, there wasn't much there.

I am disappointed in this movie. The trailer looked good, and who doesn't love the classic style of Pacino and De Niro? But this movie suffered from a poor story, poor concept, and unoriginality. Despite great performances from De Niro and Pacino, it wasn't enough. I giveRighteous Kill 6 Murdering Poets out of 10.