Righteous Kill

[Corlyss_D]

Any opportunity to see De Niro and Pacino on the same screen is not to be missed. The story revolves around two old cops, Turk (De Niro) and Rooster (Pacino), on the trail of a vigilante who kills bad guys who are either unapprehendible or who are kicked on a technicality. At one point, as De Niro and Pacino squat over the latest vicitm, De Niro says wearily, "We gotta catch this guy . . . " and Pacino cuts him off with " . . . and give him a medal." So you get the premise. Early on they begin to muse whether the killer is in fact a cop. So the De Niro-Pacino team is on one side, convinced that it is not a cop, and the other team of younger cops, admirably played by Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguizamo in the face of such icons as De Niro and Pacino, convinced the killer is a cop. Every time I see Donnie Walhberg, my respect for this workman-like actor increases. He was awesome in Band of Brothers. But I digress. Along the way, De Niro gets the girl, a masochistic CSI technician, played with relish by womanly (as opposed to androgenously twiggy) Carla Gugino, who slowly evolves into a suspect. The movie plot limped along, spraying suggestive clues about each of the ostensible suspects, and unsatisfactorily resolves itself on a phony gimmick. Still, it was worth the price of admission to watch these old bulls dominating the screen.

[Ralph]

This one is on my list for this week.