Review of Righteous Kill (2008) by Dustin H — 20 Jul 2011

Man, killing this film would be righteous. No, it's not that bad, but lord knows that it's not that good. Why? Because it's the same ol', same ol' and the same ol', same ol' isn't even good enough to begin with. The film also suffers from a lack of development, dialogue that ranges from improvable to terrible, unbelievable character behavior, as well very choppy slow-motion, which is actually a big deal enough when it's not a bit too much. Still, the film remains mostly plagued by its being so generic with little refreshing elements. It's consistently cliched, but that's almost a complement, because that might be the only thing consistent about it, as the storyline - on top of being generic - is a bit thrown-together and rather inconsistent.

Still, there's hardly anything in here to warrant hatred. It's just a passable film that has its strengths and its weaknesses, with neither growing too extreme over the other. We've discussed the weaknesses, so how about we get into these strengths I've been talking about? The film is supported by a generic, but decent score, fair sound, fine character chemistry, a progressive increase in pacing smoothness, as well as a twist so good final act, kicked-off by a solid twist and topped-off by a pretty decent ending. Of course, what mainly saves the film are the performances of the two leads. As cliched as the characters played by De Niro and Pacino are, they still retain compellingness. It's not hard to see what's coming, but De Niro and Pacino still keep the film having some type of compellingness, thanks to their solid performances and chemistry.

Overall, "Righteous Kill" is a wildly cliched crime thriller, but is made passable by the solid lead performances, satisfying final act and general entertainment value that is never totally destroyed by the film's genericism.