Country: United States
Genre: Drama/ Action/ Suspense
Director: Jon Avnet
Year: 2008
Rating: 
NOT WORTH YOUR TIME
The temptation would be to pronounce this movie as righteous swill and be done with it, but that would be too easy.
This movie is an embarrassment, a blot on the careers of everyone concerned. In terms of pedigree, this movie should have been a slam dunk. Jon Avnet directed the superior Copycat. Former masters Robert Deniro and Al Pacino have never co-starred in a movie before. Oh, I know, there’s Heat, but that was just one or two scenes. Russell Gewirtz wrote the overrated The Insider, but it wasn’t this piece of crap, either.
Oh, I suppose the technical credits are okay. Righteous Kill is a slick enough product.
The problems start with the script. First of all, it’s a compendium of cliches from beginning to end. Not a speck of original characterization. Dopey dialog. Writer Russell Gewirtz has one narrative trick to spread over a two-hour movie and it’s not even a good one. The gimmick doesn’t really make sense. It’s just there so we have an “Aha!” moment. Really moronic.
Deniro and Pacino make matters worse. When did these guys stop being actors? I mean, they’re just canned ham throughout the whole movie. I didn’t believe them for a microsecond as cops. Great way to end a legendary career, guys.
Oh, boy. I guess I have to give you some idea of what the movie’s about. Someone is killing perps. It’s no doubt a cop. Deniro’s character annnounces that he’s the killer. The other cops start to suspect Deniro. When will Deniro’s partner finally catch on? Am I boring you yet? Hell, I’m boring myself.
Here’s the kicker. Righteous Kill isn’t quite bad enough to enjoy as camp. It’s grindingly awful, but it never descends to the level of jawdropping incompetence. Never mind that the appalling poster art of two mugging apes promises that Righteous Kill is going to be the cop movie equivalent of Ed Wood’s Glen & Glenda. Righteous Kill is simply celluloid toxic sludge, without the slightest redeeming entertainment value.
This cinematic turd should have been flushed down the toilet into oblivion, where it belongs.
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