Scenes come and go in clouds of confusion, flashbacks and cutaways leaping in and out of the action like misbehaving children, but a moral stink persists.
Comment
09/26/08
Righteous Kill (2008)
20
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:137
Fresh:28
Rotten:109
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: Al Pacino and Robert De Niro do their best to elevate this dowdy genre exercise, but even these two greats can't resuscitate the film's hackneyed script.
Theatrical Release:25-09-2008
Synopsis: Academy Award® winners Robert De Niro (Raging Bull) and Al Pacino (Scent of a Woman) star as a pair of veteran New York City police detectives on the trail of a vigilante serial killer in the... [More]
Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Curtis Jackson, Carla Gugino
Director: Jon Avnet
Reviews for Righteous Kill
Top CriticThe whole thing feels as tired and over-familiar as its leading men. Really, only three words need saying to Pacino and De Niro: you're too old.
09/26/08
This one’s no Heat. More a pan of thin gruel brought to simmer.
09/26/08
And so the film trundles on. A preposterously booming score just serves to emphasise the clichéd script, sound design and cinematography.
09/26/08
Top CriticRighteous Kill is a rote and lumbering thriller that forgets to supply any thrills, and which hangs on the revelation of a twist so obvious that tension dissipates long before the so-called big reveal.
09/26/08
Top CriticThe movie goes nowhere and takes 100 minutes to do so. It should have cut its losses, gone for comedy and called itself Grumpy Old Cops.
09/26/08
They require a bigger stage, a sharper script and a more rigorous director. Without these, the long-awaited De Niro/Pacino show amounts to nothing so much as a novelty bout, a celebrity sparring session. Its sound and fury signifies very little.
09/26/08
Top CriticAdequate and entertaining but sadly nothing more.
09/26/08
Instead, it's a rather pompous, disappointing one, and a squandered opportunity to boot.
09/26/08
A thinly-sketched, utterly pedestrian cop thriller that pivots on a very predictable twist ending.
09/11/08
This cop drama is far too ordinary to live up to the hype. Spiky and watchable, it doesn't really stretch anyone. Especially the audience.
09/25/08
It’s an effective whodunnit but – more importantly – it poses refined, complex questions about how the law operates in a so-called civilised society.
09/26/08
Despite those major reservations, watching De Niro and Pacino is still an event.
09/26/08
This reminds me of The Simpsons episode where Grandpa Abe rides a bike with no hands proclaiming, "Look at me, I'm acting young!" Then he flies into a grave dig.
09/25/08
They look like jobbing veteran actors picking up another payday in some routine cop filler, and Avnet’s busily clueless direction offers them and the clunky writing little help. Pacino. De Niro. It’s over.
09/26/08
Top CriticThe plot is irrelevant because the film is utterly infatuated with the two big egos.
09/26/08
Top CriticA spotty cop procedural that serves its purpose performance-wise; De Niro and Pacino have been better, but they’ve also been far, far worse. Shoring up a convoluted script and journeyman direction, their double-act is muscular enough to please the crowds.
09/26/08
Predictable, badly written and ultimately disappointing, this distinctly below-average thriller would have gone straight to DVD if it weren't for De Niro and Pacino.
09/26/08
The thing that shocked me most was how the movie felt like some cheap-o straight-to-DVD thriller. The production values - from cinematography to editing to musical score - are little more than adequate.
09/12/08
Good in the way that makes it worth catching on basic cable during the commercial breaks of something better.
09/15/08
Latest News for Righteous Kill
January 21, 2009:
Razzies Name 2008's Worst Movie Nominees
No awards season would be complete without the Golden Raspberry Awards (AKA The Razzies), awarded each year to the very worst movies to hit Hollywood. This year's winners will... More...
January 04, 2009:
Equally gritty old school crime thriller and flashy seductive post-modern whodunit noir, along with De Niro's off the job kinky rough sex lover forensic babe (Carla Gugino) who likes him to role play criminals in bed, Righteous Kill delivers the goods. 
More...
January 03, 2009:
Equally gritty old school crime thriller and flashy seductive post-modern whodunit noir, along with De Niro's off the job kinky rough sex lover forensic babe (Carla Gugino) who likes him to role play criminals in bed, Righteous Kill delivers the goods.
More...
November 28, 2008:
UK Critics Consensus: Local Critics Warm To Changeling; De Niro Delights But What Just Happened Doesn't
It's Friday, there's a new raft of movies in the UK cinemas this week, but are any of them any good? This week the UK film hacks give us their opinions on Clint Eastwood's... More...
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