(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...This entry was posted on Sunday, February 8th, 2009 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Movie Reviews, NEW ON VIDEO, R, Thriller/Mystery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Righteous Kill Trailer
Director: Jon Avnet
Starring: Robert Deniro, Al Pacino, Carla Gugino, 50 Cent
Every decade or so, a director/producer gets the bright idea to team up iconic actors in a movie and create the next Godfather. Sometimes this idea works splendidly (Glen Gary, Glen Ross / The Departed / Analyze This), other times it is about as good an idea as Rosanne Barr singing the national anthem (Heat / Ishtar / Wag the Dog). Sometimes, when there is an absolute absence of an original idea and no real meat in the script, great actors are left looking very mediocre…..enter Righteous Kill.
Righteous Kill is the story of career long partners in the police force Tom “Turk” Cowan (played adequately by Robert Deniro) and David Fisk (played by Al Pacino). Fisk and Cowan are a couple of rough around the edges, old school New York detectives who have spent their career trying to do the right thing by keeping the scum off the street and making the world a safer place. Since no good deed ever goes unpunished, they have become increasingly dissatisfied with the effectiveness of the judicial system watching many of their good busts get thrown out of court for many different reasons. This growing resentment leads them to take justice into their own hands on a couple of occasions which has left them with a less than clear conscience. When a serial killer starts killing off defendants that had skated on major charges like murder and rape, the investigators become increasingly suspicious that it may be one of New York’s finest behind the death list. The question is who?
Righteous Kill has an interesting although not very original premise and decent but not transcendent script. The performances although palatable could easily have been turned in by Mark and Donnie Wahlberg. Although I have nothing against the brothers Wahlberg, I expect more from a combined 6 Oscar acting Nominations and a combined 3 Oscar acting wins. Fifty Cent is entertaining as a Gangster/Drug Dealer/Club Owner, I am sure he has plenty of people in his entourage that he could have researched for that role. Righteous kill is a very typical, formula who dunnit cop movie that is entertaining enough if you happen to catch it on starz while doing laundry but definitely not worth expending any energy to see.
