Product Details

• Format: Dolby, Color, NTSC, DVD, Subtitled
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001Q8PC8A
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #130,452 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Righteous Kill pairs two cinematic icons whose previous screen collaboration, Michael Mann's 1995 Heat, was absolutely electrifying despite minimal time together in a long movie. Now in their mid-60s, De Niro and Pacino are playing veteran cops who, despite being grizzled, should look much younger than these actors. The incongruent casting makes the dark story improbable from the get-go, and things get worse as dialogue by screenwriter Russell Gurwitz quickly sounds like a parody of vintage cop movie cliches. It's a strain to find anything that works. The two leads play longtime detectives and partners whose weariness with rapists, murderers, pedophiles and other villains appears linked to the acts of a serial killer taking out bad guys who got away with heinous crimes. A videotape confession by De Niro's tightly-coiled Turk--who has been seeking the killer with Pacino's Rooster--would seem to establish his ties to the events. But the movie isn't over until it's over, assuming one is still with the movie after plodding along with its facsimile of noir conviction. Director Jon Avnet never gets a handle on Righteous Kill's gritty heart, superficially pushing suspense along with heavy-handed editing, and adding unpersuasive sauce in the form of Turk's somewhat S&M sexual relationship with a female cop (Carla Gugino). Giving the proceedings sort of a boost are Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguizamo as a younger pair of sleuths working the same case. This could easily have been a better movie with those two in the leads. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Heavy Work Load, July 20, 2009

By 

M. Sholl (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Righteous Kill (2 Disc Set) - Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Curtis 50 Cent Jackson, and Carla Gugino (DVD)

A mate bought this movie around last night. I watched it without knowing anything about it.
I liked it a lot. Scirpt was tight, Very nice Editing-Smooth moves whilst all the clues were presented without knowing on first watch.
Al Pacino Particularly shines. 30 years of repiticious police work for the NYPD shows through.
It's worth a second look which for me means its Good, DeNiro was Deniro but his character does change, in a clever way.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars DECEPTION IN BLUE, July 12, 2009

By 

Mark Turner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Righteous Kill (2 Disc Set) - Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Curtis 50 Cent Jackson, and Carla Gugino (DVD)

Actors of the stature of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino deserve to have the best offered to them. Unfortunately it seems that actors in their age bracket rarely receive those phone calls. Instead they are offered roles that are decent enough but nowhere near those they played before, roles that helped them gain the notoriety that they now enjoy. Such is the case with RIGHTEOUS KILL.

De Niro and Pacino play NYPD detectives Tom "Turk" Cowan and David "Rooster" Fisk. As the film opens we see what is apparently a confession by Cowan to the murder of 14 victims beginning 4 years prior. From there the film moves into flashback mode and the tale unfolds.

At that time a suspect in a murder case is released due to insufficient evidence. Everyone knows he did it, but he still gets off. In an attempt to see justice done, Fisk plants a gun taken from evidence in the suspect's bedroom while Cowan at first attempts to stop him then lets it happen. This results in the suspect being arrested and convicted of a murder he did not commit, but at least justice is done, right?

Moving forward to just weeks before the film's opening sequence, the duo is staking out a club run by an up and coming rap artists named Spider. Witnessing a woman named Jessica using cocaine in the club, the pair plan on running a sting operation to take Spider and his drugs off the street. With the help of their less than willing witness, they plant a listening device on her and send her in to set up Spider. But Spider realizes what is happening and with the possible threat of violence, the pair breaks in to stop him. Caught in their own bit of entrapment, a shoot out follows and Jessica is shot as is Spider's bodyguard.

The case is blown. Procedure was not followed and an arrest, let alone a conviction, is not about to happen in the foreseeable future. Spider walks.

As the film progresses, various other cases come to the attention of Cowan and Fisk. At each one a poem is left with the body. It seems they have a vigilante serial killer on the loose and he's taking out various suspects who were let off from the crimes they committed due to technicalities. As they look deeper into the case, both men come to the conclusion that the perpetrator to the crime could be someone who works on the police force.

With few leads to follow and never knowing who to trust, the pair continue their investigation. The only people they feel they can trust are each other. But after hours drinks and a few secrets let lose make both men realize that the other is not quite who they thought them to be. Fisk always looked up to Cowan as his hero, his inspiration. And Cowan always thought of Fisk as a stand up guy he could count on. Both men end the film in disappointment.

As the culmination of their investigation comes to a close, the setting drops back to Spider's club. With Spider in the mix as well as the gun toting thugs he hires to protect him, you can be sure a shooting is in the mix.

Prior to the final moments of the film, most movie lovers will guess who the killer is. But that doesn't mean I'll spoil it for those who don't. Both actors seem to be walking through these roles without a ton of enthusiasm. It doesn't lessen what they have to offer, but one would think after waiting for just the right movie to be able to work together again in they would have found something a bit better than this.

Which is odd. Because while the film may not meet the standards I have in my own mind for these actors, it is actually a relatively decent film. The story seems as if it could happen and the possibility of someone going off the end after years of watching suspects set free is plausible enough, though one hopes it's never happened.

The rest of the cast include 50 Cent as Spider, Carla Gugino as Karen Corelli (Cowan's love interest), John Leguizamo and Donnie Wahlberg as fellow detectives and Brian Dennehy as the their supervisor. All turn in well done performances and it's nice to see Dennehy on screen again.

Is this movie worth renting and watching? Certainly. It's far better than a number of films released. Is it worth adding to your collection? I would say for die hard fans of the two actors only. Anything either of them decides to do make their performances worth watching. They elevate things they are in. This movie doesn't drop their standing in the least.