Review of Righteous Kill (2008) by Dutch V — 04 Aug 2009

I can't believe someone could fuck up a movie with Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, but guess what? They did!

There is a revelation/red herring right at the beginning that pisses me off because all it does is set up warning flags saying this movie is going to suck. I am probably going to spoil the movie for you, but if you haven't seen the movie and then go out to watch the movie it wouldn't be long until you figure out who the real bad guy is. So here is a spoiler I suppose.

Near the beginning the audience is suspected to believe that DeNiro's character is the killer and bad guy. If this were true it just ruined any possible twist or awesome ending. If it wasn't true that would automatically make the killer Pacino or some unknown force. Either way, it completely ruins the fun of trying to figure out who is the actual killer which is why I thought I was going to love this movie.

To me this is one of the biggest disappointments ever. It certainly isn't DeNiro or Pacino because the only time the movie seems watchable is when the two are on screen, interacting together. The script, editing, and directing sucked balls, and if you get upset at me for saying that you obviously haven't seen the film. The film has too many tangents to be enjoyable. There was way too much Curtis Jackson (not that he should have been in the movie at all) and even if they had another actor (a real actor) there still would have been too much of that character. Also DeNiro's character is shown to have kind of a strange love life which does absolutely for the movie, especially considering none of the scenes are actually revealing just time wasting. Also it focuses way too much on two other random detectives that really don't do anything to the movie at all.

The most interesting part of this movie is when you have DeNiro and Pacino on screen together with little side character interference and when they discuss the morality and I suppose psychology of the killer. Which ultimately is the last ten minutes of the movie. That was awesome, but not awesome enough for me to give it any higher of a rating. In fact the only reason I am giving it this good, is because of the last scene with DeNiro and Pacino.

As sad as I am to say this, don't watch this movie even though it has two legends in it. They did an amazing job considering what they were working with. Otherwise this movie is a piece of shit, so don't watch it.