Movie Review "Righteous Kill"

I have a man crush on both Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino so I was at the noon showing of Righteous Kill opening day. There was no stopping me. Here are two of the greatest actors of all time getting together in the same movie for just the third time. Trivia question, can you name the other two times these guys were in the same film together?....it's a trick question.

I mean, this was supposed to be like a heavyweight title fight, and not a couple of palookas that you see now. This is Ali/Frazier...Tyson/Holyfield...without the ear nibbling. Three Oscars between them...9 nominations. These guys litter my movie collection. The Godfather I and II. Goodfellas. Raging Bull. Taxi Driver. Glengarry Glen Ross. The Insider. Heat. Scent of a Woman. There is no way this could be bad right? Right???? Right?????

I would not call Righteous Kill a bad movie because it wasn't. Death Race was a bad movie, but I was disappointed just the same. "Kill" just didn't have much substance. I thought that the writing was weak and the plot was all over the place. Not to mention that I was completely lost for a little while towards the end of the movie. Of course the worse part was that both me and Bonnie had figured out the big twist after about 30 minutes. Hey, I can look at two hot chicks all day, but if they are stupid, Im gone. That's what it felt like....a couple of great actors standing around with no material. Even these two can't carry a movie if their are pot holes in the story line and poor character development.

Righteous Kill is your typical buddy cop flick. The story is about Pacino and DeNiro as tough as nails....tight as can be partners that become suspects in several vigilante killings. The victims are criminals that have avoided the long arm of the law because of bad police work, witnesses that have croaked, or whatever gets a murderer off the chopping block. Suddenly, these guys end up dead and all of them can be traced back to the Dream Team. **A side bar here. This formula for a movie has been done before. The best example I can think of is "The Star Chamber" which starred Micheal Douglas. I think it came out in 1986 or so. Rent it, it's pretty good.

Meanwhile, there are several subplots that go NOWHERE. Director Jon Avnet really should have just thrown the script out the window and allowed the pros to go to work. Some movies the actors can't act, some movies the plot is as boring as watching my toaster, some movies the special effects give you motion sickness (Speed Racer), but this one has to go to the director. In my opinion a director guides a movie down a specific path and has the sense to get out of the way. Avnet tried to get cute and failed miserably.

Brian Dennehy shows up as the venerable police Captain that uses the same ol lines and is every bit the stereotype. Donnie (brother of Mark) Wahlberg and John Leguizamo are great actors, but they are thrown only scraps and 50 Cent has a part in this, but it's wasted as well.

I might be being a little harsh regarding this film, but I gotta call it like I see it. If this movie starred lets say.....Samuel Jackson and Richard Gere, it would never gotten nearly as much pub and probably would have spent one week at the Big Theatre, then a week at the dollar theatre, then straight to DVD. This movie was average, so I will give it an average grade. C