Righteous Kill

D-

Directed by John Avnet

Both Al Pacino and Robert Deniro's once brilliant careers have admittedly lost some of their luster in the past decade with a number of appearances in mediocre to bad films. Neither have starred in a good film since the end of the 1990's and their recent acting choices have been mystifying to say the least. Their decision to appear together in John Avnet's "Righteous Kill" continues their paths of artistic self destruction, although this time they got to star in a stinker together.

Pacino and Deniro star as two buddy cops from New York who pretty much fit the mold of stereotypical goombah New York City cop that has been retread in hundreds of crappy cop flics before this one. It turns out, however, that Turk "Robert Deniro) has been doing some extra duty as a vigilante, waxing local criminals who may have escaped the long arm of the law. As his crime spree continues, however, a number of his colleagues grow suspicion and the heat rises, forcing Turk out into the open and revealing the true depths of his treachery. Pacino ends up involved in some capacity but his role is mostly reduced to shouting profanities at criminals and screaming "OHHHHHHH" loudly at odd intervals which is, I imagine, supposed to give him a vibe of danger unpredictability.

The game plan here seems to have been to recruit Deniro and Pacino, give them a number of "cool" one liners and let them crap out a diamond of a movie. Unfortunately, you can't expect actors, no matter how talented or cherished they may be, to simply carry your lame film for you. "Righteous Kill" certainly isn't helped by the fact that Pacino and Deniro, who appear to have been tasked with the success of the film, deliver uninspired performances and look like they are both there to simply collect a paycheck, which they probably are. The plot is lazy and formulaic and the third act is both predictable and implausible which makes it that much worse since you're basically anticipating that the story will attempt to feed you an unlikely ending, which it does. Ultimately, "Righteous Kill" was doomed from the start by a horrendous script and it could only get worse or marginally better from there. I'd argue that the involvement of Pacino and Deniro probably made it worse because their presence alone raises expectations that sparks may fly and something memorable might endup on the screen. Not so, unfortunately.