Review of Righteous Kill (2008) by Andrae A — 28 Feb 2010

This film was so poorly written, with its incessant in dialogue cinematic references and broad 'fat tonyesque' bravado, that I thought that it was written by some snotty nosed trustifarian with more connections than sense or talent.

When I saw that it was written by Russell Gerwitz, who also wrote Inside Man, I was surprised as Righteous Kill doesn;t even pale in comparison...its practically translucent. RK is pretty awful and placed Pacino and DeNiro in roles that would have been great for them 20 years ago but now only made them seem like Charles Bronson in the later years- slow, cliched, and quickly marring past performances.

Leaning heavily on the tone and tenor of Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle, Gerwitz wrote the long seemingly rambling monologues for DeNiro's monotone but somehow punchy New York accent as narration to a film that believed it was twisting its audience in its plot but in reality had as many twists as a string of spaghetti.

Pacino was just too old for this role, plain and simple. He was literally a shadow of his former self and, considering Serpico is one of my favorite films, it hurt a little. He has insisted on not playing age appropriate roles and its starting to grate on the audience.

..being me. This film was rightfully Leguizamo's and Wahlberg's who had a great connection and could have easily handled it on their own. All in all it's a very poor movie exemplified by Curtis " 50 cent" Jackson seemingly launching himself out of a window in what was a poorly executed plot device and stunt.

That scene was also funny to watch in slow motion. I thoroughly recommend it for poops and giggles.