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the killer late in the movie. She sees who it is (we don't; the movie loves revealing the killer to other characters without revealing him to the audience, which gets really tiring). Why would the killer show his face to her? Why would he assault her in the first place? Simply to make him less forgivable, I suspect. It doesn't matter. The real motives of the killer, when we actually find out, are just as nonsensical.
Then there's the matter of Pacino playing a character that was obviously meant to be played by a much younger actor. There are a bunch of weird lines about De Niro being Pacino's "mentor"; at first you think he's joking until it becomes blatantly obvious that this was originally written as a movie about an older cop and a younger cop. Of course, "originally" implies that the script was at all changed, beyond a couple of lines, to reflect the correct ages of the actors. (For the record, Pacino's actually the older one, by three years.)
Did I mention that the twist ending hinges on the fact that it's never made clear what the main characters' names are? Yeah. And the movie never bothers to tell us whether two characters are alive or dead at the end? And the killer leaves a calling card -- a poem -- at the scene of each of his murders? Please.
So the movie's a mess. An utter mess. The only redeeming aspect of Righteous Kill is its dialogue. It's the kind of tough-talking, my-balls-are-bigger-than-your-balls cop dialogue that I found so entertaining in Street Kings. Sample exchange:
Pacino: Do you like poetry?
Young Punk: What?
De Niro: Do...you...like...poetry?
Young Punk: Yeah. Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm gonna punch your f---ing face off, you f---ing f---.
I'm amused by that sort of thing, especially when De Niro and Pacino are involved, because they tough-talk like nobody's ever tough-talked. All the movie had to do was have a really simple, tight plot, and let the two actors do their thing. Instead, we get a script and direction straight out of the Idiot Bin. Avnet is just plain terrible, and Gewirtz should be ashamed of himself.
Movie Grade: C-
Synopsis:
Two cops hunt down a serial killer who only seems to kill bad guys.
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8/23/07: Carla Gugino joins Pacino and De Niro in Righteous Kill
7/19/07: De Niro/Pacino thriller Righteous Kill gets poster, more cast
5/18/07: De Niro and Pacino team up at last! |
