Righteous Kill (2008)

Jon Avnet’s cop thriller seemingly exists solely to have Robert De Niro and Al Pacino reunited in a film together. They are cops, Turk and Rooster, partners hunting down a serial killer on the streets of New York City.

If it weren’t for the two leads, this would almost certainly have been a straight to DVD release; there’s no substance whatsoever here, although it’s certainly nice to see De Niro and Pacino sharing the same screen and clearly enjoying themselves.

Righteous Kill isn’t totally without its pleasures, and despite the fact that most of these come from the two central characters; there are one or two nice touches along the way. Despite being able to see the final twist coming a mile off, the way in which it’s revealed is played rather well, but the subsequent sequence post-reveal is something of a damp squib.

Which is probably a fair way of summing up Righteous Kill, it’s great to see Pacino and De Niro on the same screen, but such a shame that it’s akin to putting them side by side in L.A Takedown (1989), Michael Mann’s ninety minute TV film that was eventually fleshed out to become Heat six years later. For the record, L.A Takedown is a better film than Righteous Kill. 5.0/10