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Righteous Kill (2008)

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Average Rating: 4.1/10
Reviews Counted: 140
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 113

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: 28
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 25

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: 87,348

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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

R, 1 hr. 40 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

Directed By: Jon Avnet

Written By: Russell Gerwitz

In Theaters: Sep 10, 2008 Wide

On DVD: Jan 6, 2009

Box Office:$40.0M

Overture Films

This thriller by Jon Avnet is mostly by the numbers, and its surprise ending, though effective, feels somewhat forced.

December 9, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

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Joshua Katzman

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Nearly everything about this film is a clich�.

November 5, 2008 Full Review Source: At the Movies

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Ben Mankiewicz

At the Movies

Top Critic

Say it ain't so, Bobby and Al.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Boston Globe

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Jason Matloff

Boston Globe

Top Critic

There's nothing righteous to be found here.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: ReelViews

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James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Top Critic

The movie is hectic, exhausting, and baffling.

September 22, 2008 Full Review Source: New Yorker

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David Denby

New Yorker

Top Critic

It's not much fun to see these two reduced to Mad TV parodies of themselves. In the right movie, they'd stop coasting on their legends long enough to remind us how they became them.

September 17, 2008 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly

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Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

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.

August 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Washington Times

| Comment

Sonny Bunch

Washington Times Source: Washington Times

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?

February 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Fayetteville Free Weekly

| Comments (6)

Tony Macklin

Fayetteville Free Weekly

An overly decorated pinata afraid to expose the vacuum inside.

January 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Projection Booth

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Rob Humanick

Projection Booth

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?

January 11, 2009 Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com

| Comment (1)

Brian Holcomb

CinemaBlend.com

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.

December 25, 2008 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze

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Prairie Miller

NewsBlaze

...the phrase phoning-it-in was practically invented for Pacino and De Niro's work here...

November 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews

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David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

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).

November 12, 2008 Comment

Andy Klein

Los Angeles CityBeat Source: Los Angeles CityBeat

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Audience Reviews for Righteous Kill

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Righteous Kill is an average police mystery/thriller, terribly disappointing considering the two acting giants who star in it. I always like Carla Guginio and John Lequizamo too, but they don't add much here. So, all these actors have done impressive work before, but director Jon Avnet doesn't get much done here. There

September 23, 2011

Clintus Maximus

Super Reviewer

ok...a pair of seasoned cops, Turk (Robert De Niro) and Rooster (Al Pacino) are on the case when a serial killer with a vigillante streak starts bumping off bad guys in New York City.They team up with younger detectives Perez and Riley and assisted by crime scene specilist Karen Corelli they work to uncover the killers

March 17, 2011

♥Robyn M♥

Super Reviewer

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