Righteous Kill is the third movie in which screen icons Robert De Niro and Al Pacino both appear, but only the second in which they share screen time. 13 years ago, Michael Mann scored a coup by filming the first scene with these two sitting opposite one another. Now, director Jon Avnet, rather than accepting sloppy seconds, has attempted to one-up Mann by having De Niro and Pacino share not only a handful of scenes, but pairing them on-screen for almost every scene in a 100-minute motion picture. Unfortunately, the hook of having the two Corleones together is just about the only reason to see this otherwise lackluster police thriller. The script and direction are what one might expect from any of a number of similarly written productions that bypass theaters on the expressway to cable and/or DVD. It's only the star power of the leads that accords Righteous Kill the honor of a 2000+ theater release when it deserves a more ignominious fate.
See www.reelviews.net for full review
