Righteous Kill

Righteous Kill movie review: Officers "Turk" (Robert De Niro) and "Rooster" (Al Pacino) know that someone's been offing suspected criminals around New York City, and others (John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg) in the NYPD think the killer is a cop. The thing is, throughout the film we see video footage of Turk confessing to the murders, and he acts very suspiciously whenever anyone talks about suspecting cops, so either "Righteous Kill" gives away the ending at the beginning or there's a silly twist waiting for us down the road. Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson co-stars as a drug dealer, with Carla Gugino as an officer sleeping with Turk.

Big question: Can these two legendary actors, who haven't worked together since 1995's "Heat" and rarely make good movies anymore, deliver a better cop drama than Pacino's last collaboration with director Jon Avnet, the awful "88 Minutes"?

Skip it: This generic, style-free shambles goes through the motions so blankly that it doesn't realize its motions turn police procedure into a war against urgency and common sense.  Pacino and De Niro look totally spent, and watching "Righteous Kill" will likewise make a long, tired day feel even more endless.

Catch it: For a brief glimpse at a killer/victim nicknamed Rambo the Skateboard Pimp. Look for this to also be the title of Sylvester Stallone-produced movie spinoffs about the classic action hero's punky kid brother.

Bottom line: "Heat"?! "Righteous Kill" is cold as ice and dreary as hell. But it does allow these two another chance to appear together: on a list of the year's 20 worst movies. Source: Metromix

Box Office: On its opening weekend, Righteous Kill opened at #3, grossing $16,288,361, behind The Family That Preys and Burn After Reading respectively. Its final box office tally was approximately $40 million domestic (US/Canada) and $38 million international for a total of $78 million. By comparison, an earlier movie that paired DeNiro and Pacino, Heat, grossed over $180 million worldwide. Overture Films paid $12 million to acquire the film, and stated that they will be happy if this film could gross $25 million in the United States theatrically.

• Wikipedia: Righteous Kill
• Official movie site: Righteous Kill
• Watch the trailer below!