Righteous Kill
I think what people wanted to see when Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino co-starred in Michael Mann’s modern classic, “Heat,” I think they were thinking along the lines of something like this, with both actors sharing the screen in pretty much every scene together. Time has rendered such complaints moot on that epic, and compared to this film, fans have no reason to complain- their coffee scene in “Heat” is more intriguing than most of the entire of this film.
Written by “Inside Man” scribe Russell Gerwitz- with some of that film’s tricks and little of that film’s genuine inventiveness- and directed by craftsman Jon Avnet, “Righteous Kill” has DeNiro and Pacino as partners Turk and Rooster, NYPD detectives investigating a serial killer with a penchant for killing scumbags. The film starts off with DeNiro staring into a camera, confessing to a series of 14 murders, his path of corruption starting off with a planted gun on an acquitted rapist and murderer. But things aren’t what they seem with this case. Turk’s forensic fuck-buddy Karen (Carla Gugino) likes it rough, and is relishing busting his balls and searching through evidence, while rival cops Perez (John Leguizamo) and Riley (Donnie Wahlberg) are pissed Turk and Robbie are horning in on their case, taking lead and being reasonably nonchalant about finding a cop killer, seemingly holding back information. All the while, Turk is trying to nail a club owner (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) for drug and murder charges with the help of a hottie lawyer (Trilby Glover) he catches with blow in the men’s restroom. DeNiro and Pacino are relishing sharing the screen together, and play off each other with vibrato, but this sort of police corruption tale isn’t new to them, and it’s not new to us. It’s entertaining for what it is, but as evidenced by the classic status of their first two films together (“The Godfather Part II,” in which they don’t share a single scene together, and “Heat”), their best days are behind them. Still, you gotta enjoy seeing two masters just enjoy sparring off one another and such a game cast around them, even if they don’t have anything new to say.
