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Movies / On DVD / Righteous Kill
Righteous Kill

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Righteous Kill (2008)

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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.

Rated: R

Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins

Genre: Action/Adventure

Theatrical Release:Sep 12, 2008 Wide

Box Office: $39,983,772

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... 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 adrenaline fueled psychological thriller Righteous Kill, directed by Jon Avnet (Red Corner, Fried Green Tomatoes) and written by Russell Gewirtz (Inside Man). The cast also features hip-hop superstar Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson (Get Rich or Die Tryin’).

After 30 years as partners in the pressure cooker environment of the NYPD, highly decorated Detectives David Fisk and Thomas Cowan should be ready for retirement, but aren’t. Before they can hang up their badges, they are called in to investigate the murder of a notorious pimp, which appears to have ties to a case they solved years before.

Like the original murder, the victim is a suspected criminal whose body is found accompanied by a four line poem justifying the killing. When additional crimes take place, it becomes clear the detectives are looking for a serial killer, one who targets criminals that have fallen through the cracks of the judicial system. His mission is to do what the cops can’t do on their own—take the culprits off the streets for good. The similarities between the recent killings and their earlier case raise a nagging question: Did they put the wrong man behind bars? --© Overture Films
[More]

Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Curtis Jackson, Carla Gugino

Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Curtis Jackson, Carla Gugino, Dan Futterman, Donnie Wahlberg, Trilby Glover, Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo

Director: Jon Avnet

Director: Jon Avnet
Screenwriter: Russell Gerwitz
Producer: Rob Cowan, Avi Lerner, Randall Emmett, Jon Avnet, Lati Grobman
Composer: Ed Shearmur
Studio: Overture Films

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Release:

Jan 6, 2009

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Reviews for Righteous Kill

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121 - 138 (sorted by date)
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Sitting through this 111-minute debacle is akin to watching two amateur comics giving bad impersonations of De Niro and Pacino. Worse, actually; the comics would at least be funny.

Full Review Source: tonymedley.com | comment Comment
09/11/08
Tony Medley
Tony Medley
tonymedley.com

Lazy, muddled and so misdirected it should be a felony itself, "Righteous Kill" is nothing but a cheap trick.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment 1 Comment
09/11/08
Laura Clifford
Laura Clifford
Reeling Reviews

An ordinary cop picture boosted by two charismatic superstars but hindered by its dearth of surprises.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
09/11/08
Luke Sader
Luke Sader
Hollywood Reporter

One of the most patently imbecilic thrillers to come down the pike in many a moon.

Full Review Source: DustinPutman.com | comment Comment
09/11/08
Dustin Putman
Dustin Putman
DustinPutman.com

The novelty of watching De Niro and Pacino team up wears off pretty quickly.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
09/11/08
Keith Phipps
Keith Phipps
AV Club

Compared to 88 Minutes, Pacino's previous collaboration with director Jon Avnet, it's a work of art, but the movie is so dreadfully by-the-numbers and predictable that comparing it to a TV cop show would be an insult to TV cop shows.

Full Review Source: MSNBC | comment Comment
09/11/08
Alonso Duralde
Alonso Duralde
MSNBC

Pacino and De Niro look totally spent, and watching Righteous Kill will likewise make a long, tired day feel even more endless.

Full Review Source: Metromix.com | comment Comment
09/11/08
Matt Pais
Matt Pais
Metromix.com

Everybody involved has earned a more righteous, movie and righteous director, than this.

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
09/11/08
Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel

Righteous Kill, a.k.a. The Al and Bob Show, is a cop flick with all the drama of Law and Order: AARP.

Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | comment Comment
09/11/08
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's not that the crime thriller Righteous Kill is spectacularly awful. It's just thoroughly mediocre — a standard police procedural, a long episode of Law & Order, unremarkable but for the pairing of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
09/11/08
Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire
Associated Press
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

At once groaningly predictable and needlessly convoluted.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
09/11/08
Justin Chang
Justin Chang
Variety

...reveals what Robert De Niro and Al Pacino truly have in common: Neither can say no to a crappy script.

Full Review Source: LarsenOnFilm | comment Comment
09/11/08
Josh Larsen
Josh Larsen
LarsenOnFilm

Leaden with cliches, obvious red herrings and logic-abandoning choices by the lead characters, the Russell Gewirtz script is the proverbial pig in De Niro-Pacino lipstick.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
09/11/08
Phil Villarreal
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

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.

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment 2 Comments
09/11/08
Prairie Miller
Prairie Miller
NewsBlaze

Lurid, stupid cop melodrama...crammed with sequences so overwrought and dialogue so monumentally pseudo-tough as to be absolutely laughable. The celebrated stars...produce nothing but crude self-parody.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
09/11/08
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

At last, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino star in a film together. Too bad it's a fairly run-of-the-mill cop drama with an ending you'll see coming from miles away.

Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | comment Comment
09/11/08
Joe Lozito
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound

De Niro and Pacino's iconic acting and Avnet's stylish direction compensate for a movieish, implausible, predictable, and morally debatable tale, which combines elements of the cop and serial killer genres, imitating Seven and The Usual Suspects.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
09/11/08
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

lugubrious and lackadaisical

Full Review Source: Killer Movie Reviews | comment Comment
09/10/08
Andrea Chase
Andrea Chase
Killer Movie Reviews
 
 
121 - 138 (sorted by date)
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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. Opens in new window
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. Opens in new window
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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