Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino together; surely this has got to be the recipe for success? Reuniting the two legends for the first time since more than a decade, Righteous Kill explores the idea that the obvious may not always be so.
Tom 'Turk' Cowan (DeNiro) and David 'Rooster' Fisk (Al Pacino) are veterans in their field. With 30 years of experience behind them, they are possibly one of the best detective teams around (yet somehow unwilling to call it a day). When a string of murders start taking place, they are enlisted to figure out who the serial killer is.
The list of victims seemed random at first, but is later revealed that most have avoided justice in some form or other. Did the killer want revenge, or did he just want justice done? Things start to get out of hand when many more get killed, including a pimp, a child rapist and even a church priest. Every murder is accompanied by a piece of paper and a poem justifying the reason for the kill. Do the murdered actually deserved to be killed? While all these questions run riot, evidence even starts to point in the direction of one of the detectives. Could the killer eventually turn out to be one of their own?
Turk and Rooster make a strong team, and go to great lengths to help protect each other from getting into trouble. They even work together to frame a person they believe is responsible for child murder. It should be noted that DeNiro and Al Pacino have great chemistry here and make believable detective partners who are past their prime. However as the plot goes, things seem to take on a tried-and-tested ‘good cop, bad cop’ route and you somehow get the feeling you heard this storyline before. It doesn’t help that the excitement never really picks up either. The movie does let the facts roll in so you’ll more-or-less have a picture of who you think the suspect is.
Don’t get me wrong, DeNiro and Al Pacino are great actors in their own right, but perhaps they could have benefited from a less dull plot. Righteous Kill does however, gain from an unexpected twist at the end. Do watch out for rapper 50 Cent in a role that seems made just for him.
3 out of 5 Stars
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