Righteous Kill (2008)
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Reviews Counted: 142
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 115
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.
Average Rating: 3.8/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 29
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.
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Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 88,910
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Movie Info
Jon Avnet's thriller Righteous Kill stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as a pair of Big Apple police officers investigating a series of murders committed by a serial killer. Carla Gugino co-stars as a crime-scene investigator who has romantic ties to De Niro. 50 Cent, Donnie Wahlberg, Brian Dennehy, and John Leguizamo co-star. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
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Cast
-
Robert De Niro
Turk -
Al Pacino
Rooster -
Curtis Jackson
Spider -
Carla Gugino
Karen Corelli -
Donnie Wahlberg
Det. Ted Riley -
Trilby Glover
Jessica -
Shirly Brener
Natalya -
Melissa Leo
Cheryl Brooks -
Oleg Taktarov
Yevgeny Mugalat -
Alan Rosenberg
Stein -
Alan Blumenfeld
Martin Baum -
Rob Dyrdek
Rambo -
Brian Dennehy
Lt. Hingis -
John Leguizamo
Det. Simon Perez -
Saidah Aprika
Gwen Darvis -
Sterling K. Brown
Rogers -
Barry Primus
Prosky -
Frank John Hughes
Charles Randall -
Terry Serpico
Jon Van Luytens -
Liza Colon-Zayas
Judge Angel-Rodriguez -
Malachy McCourt
Father Connell -
Ajay Naidu
Doctor Chadrabar -
Charles F. Krichman Jr.
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Righteous Kill Trailer & Photos
All Critics (148) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (28) | Rotten (117) | DVD (7)
This thriller by Jon Avnet is mostly by the numbers, and its surprise ending, though effective, feels somewhat forced.
Top CriticNearly everything about this film is a cliché.
Say it ain't so, Bobby and Al.
The movie, which has more than 10 credited producers, feels like one of those slick, for-the-money projects Hollywood studios cook up via graph charts and marketing surveys.
There's nothing righteous to be found here.
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.
A murky, muddled, miserable mess, Righteous Kill spends 101 minutes failing to achieve what Heat managed in just six.
The worst about Righteous Kill is that there's probably a perfectly acceptable procedural thriller somewhere in the mountain of cliches and stupidity that riddle the film.
Imagine this conversation: A phone call between actor Bob De Niro and director Marty Scorsese. Bobby: Hello, Marty. I've been calling and texting, but you never answer. (Silence) Bobby: I'm talking to you. Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
As far as bad movies go, Righteous Kill is something of a zenith.
Pacino. DeNiro. Armed and dangerous. In a cop drama. In NYC. Together. Written by the writer of Inside Man. Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, what could've gone so wrong?
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.
...the phrase phoning-it-in was practically invented for Pacino and De Niro's work here...
Russell Gewirtz's script is built around a trick, one that is simultaneously too clever by half and not clever at all (which itself is quite a trick).
Audience Reviews for Righteous Kill
Super Reviewer
has an obvious twist~!
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Foreign Titles
- Kurzer Prozess - Righteous Kill (DE)
- La Loi et l'ordre (FR)
