'Righteous Kill' not all it could have been

Director: John Avnet

Cast: Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Brian Dennehy, 50 Cent, John Leguizamo

Two of Hollywood’s greatest actors return together to the screen, after a 13-year lay-off, but, sadly, the film doesn’t match their towering talents.

We have here a conventional buddy cop thriller whose script is weak, and old-fashioned and while DeNiro and Pacino are outstanding, the writing does not give them the chance to attract us to their characters.

Turk (DeNiro) and Rooster (Pacino) are a couple of 30-year veteran New York cops working one last big case, the investigation into a series of murders, which leads them to believe the killings are linked to one of their old cases that they thought they had solved.

The film, eventually like many that have gone before, is dark and cynical, peppered with some passable snappy one-liners but leaving us with a feeling of indifference as to the main characters and the outcome of their work.

The film is saved from itself by DeNiro and Pacino - it’s not bad, it’s just disappointing.

Star Rating: 3/5