Product Description

Turk and Rooster, two aging NYPD detectives who have been longtime partners are faced with a serial killer who is murdering sociopathic criminals. They both have personal issues, and when they start working with a younger team, Perez and Riley, tensions between the pairs of partners is inevitable, especially since Turk is now living with Perez's ex-girlfriend, also a homicide detective.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1835 in DVD
• Brand: STARZ/SPHE
• Released on: 2009-01-06
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 100 minutes

Features

• After 30 years as partners in the pressure cooker environment of the NYPD, highly decorated Detectives "Turk", played by Academy Award winner Robert De Niro (Raging Bull) and "Rooster", played by Academy Award winner Al Pacino (Scent of a Woman) should be ready for retirement. But, before they can hang up their badges, they are called in to investigate the murder of a notorious pimp, which appears

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Righteous Kill pairs two cinematic icons whose previous screen collaboration, Michael Mann's 1995 Heat, was absolutely electrifying despite minimal time together in a long movie. Now in their mid-60s, De Niro and Pacino are playing veteran cops who, despite being grizzled, should look much younger than these actors. The incongruent casting makes the dark story improbable from the get-go, and things get worse as dialogue by screenwriter Russell Gurwitz quickly sounds like a parody of vintage cop movie cliches. It's a strain to find anything that works. The two leads play longtime detectives and partners whose weariness with rapists, murderers, pedophiles and other villains appears linked to the acts of a serial killer taking out bad guys who got away with heinous crimes. A videotape confession by De Niro's tightly-coiled Turk--who has been seeking the killer with Pacino's Rooster--would seem to establish his ties to the events. But the movie isn't over until it's over, assuming one is still with the movie after plodding along with its facsimile of noir conviction. Director Jon Avnet never gets a handle on Righteous Kill's gritty heart, superficially pushing suspense along with heavy-handed editing, and adding unpersuasive sauce in the form of Turk's somewhat S&M sexual relationship with a female cop (Carla Gugino). Giving the proceedings sort of a boost are Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguizamo as a younger pair of sleuths working the same case. This could easily have been a better movie with those two in the leads. --Tom Keogh

Stills from Righteous Kill (Click for larger image)

Customer Reviews

Above Average Thriller
Two veteran cops, Turk and Rooster (Robert De Niro, Al Pacino) work to solve a string of murders in which the victims are criminals that they have previously arrested and have been acquitted of their crimes. Something's seems a bit fishy, at least that's what two younger cops, Detectives Riley and Perez (Donnie Wahlberg, John Leguizamo) start to think. Furthermore, they suspect it's a cop. Anyway you splice it, the decorated members of the NYPD are looking for a killer. One who leaves a bit of poetry at every scene and happens to murder the filth of society that has slipped through the cracks of the judicial system.

"Righteous Kill" is only a slightly above average thriller given the big name talent. De Niro and Pacino both put forth great performances; De Niro as the hot headed, do whatever it takes to get a conviction cop and Pacino as a much calmer, honest detective. It seems a bit cliché, the whole good cop bad cop, but nonetheless it worked well and the duo's performances were very well balanced to convey not just an occupational partnership, but also a friendship. While the film will leave the audience thinking they know all the answers within the first twenty minutes, the plot does take some interesting turns.

It's great to see the two legendary actors are still performing. "Righteous Kill" is not completely predictable nor is it unwatchable. Give it a try.

Second DeNiro/Pacino Team-Up Is Good, But Could Have Better
Righteous Kill is only the second pairing of two of cinema's greatest actors - Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Their first on-screen collaboration, only featured them together in a couple of scenes, and left the public wanting more.

Righteous Kill has them playing NYC detective partners who've been on the job for 30 years. A serial killer start killing criminals who gotten off on technicalities. Soon, all the evidence points to the killer being a cop. And the cop would seem to be De Niro's character, Turk, a rough-edged type who isn't above falsifying evidence to convict suspects. He's balanced out by Pacino's Rooster, a calm, soothing influence on Turk in a relationship that seems as much like a marriage as it does a professional partnership. Added to the mix are John Leguizamo and Donnie Wahlberg as younger cops investigating the killings and Carlo Gugino as a forensic specialist in a relationship with DeNiro.

The movie works well as a police drama, less so as a mystery, although the solution of the killings does take some interesting turns. If two lesser actors were playing Turk and Rooster, the film might have been touted as asking interesting questions about the nature of friendships, partnerships, and romantic relationship amid all the stresses and strains of police work. But with De Niro and Pacino in tow, the viewer expects more, and doesn't necessarily get it with this film.

However, the two greats still know how to pull off great performance, and know how to elicit sympathy, affection, and every other possible emotion from an audience. Righteous Kill isn't a complete misfire, but might require a third teaming of these great actors.

Names are Just Names When You Are Past Your Prime
There is something amusing to me when people simply spit out famous actor's names and presume that means you are getting a good movie. For years, people bemoaned Pacino and De Niro didn't really have a scene to together in 'Heat,' so I suppose this is their remedy.

Ah, this film is a masterpiece. Two famous actors who have nothing left other than the relative fame of their names do what they do: act like De Niro and Pacino. For years, people have extolled the virtues of their respective movies but what nobody wants to admit is that Pacino and De Niro have played themselves for years. They don't really have any particular skill other than playing the same character over and over again.

Both men make the same faces they always make; Pacino requires a barking soliloquy at the end of each movie. De Niro's mouth turns down at the corners all the time. The acting is just silly; these are two overblown actors, at least a decade past their primes (likely more), together in a movie in the hope the combination of their respective names would somehow make these utterly unremarkable movie marketable.

You have to buy De Niro as virile enough to have Carla Gugino as a girlfriend and, in order to demonstrate his manliness, they have to show an elderly De Niro in various sexual poses which serve to disgust as opposed to convincing you he's a man of 'action.' If you survive the gag flex of those utterly unnecessary scenes, you get the reward of two actors acting for a paycheck. If you must watch this movie, get it from a library.