Saw 'Righteous Kill'.......

[FAST FRED]

......starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino and I thought it was pretty good.

The Link

It's a gritty serial killer/police detective flick that's got a few interesting twists and some good one liners.

But the main treat is, of course, watching De Niro and Pacino in the same movie for the first time since "Heat."

In that movie they had only a couple of memorable scenes together, but here they have many opportunities since they are crime solving partners.

They play with and against each other effortlessly and it's fun to watch.

I didn't think this movie was at the overall excellence level of "Heat," but it was decent.

Worth at least a rental and, IMHO, worthy of a full price ticket if you're a fan of these two particular actors, who are among our best.

 

[Genco]

Glad to hear it. Two of my favorites. Pacino needs a hit badly.

 

[El Cid Vicious]

Thanks, Fred. All is forgiven since your review of Mamma Mia.

 

[FAST FRED]

GENUINE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!

This is a pretty good movie and I recommend it.

I think if you like Pacino and Di Niro you should stop now and go see the movie, because reading these spoilers will probably diminish your enjoyment of "Righteous Kill."

But feel free to continue if this makes no difference to you.

I thought Al Pacino at age 68 and Robert Di Niro at 65 looked/were too old to play these roles.

I think street active homicide detectives retire or move to a supervisor's desk sooner than that.

But that certainly wasn't a deal breaker for me, since I'm the same age and still street active myself.

Their portrayals, singularly and collectively, as long standing, soon retiring, cop partners were otherwise successful, however.

They switch back and forth, good cop, bad cop, supporting, restraining and helping each other,

I also think this plot was shopworn and predictable enough to be considered, at best, mediocre, if these actors and supporting actors weren't so interesting to watch.

50 Cent does OK as a drug lord and crime scene investigator Carla Gugino gets off so much having rough sex and fantasizing about police brutality that those more reserved female criminologists on TV's "Bones" and "CSI" should consider it a slap to their collective smiling faces just before they get bent over in a way that the small screen in not allowed to show in prime time.

I mentally predicted the ending before I even bought my ticket, since I figured that this movie couldn't and wouldn't end exactly like "Heat."

The last man standing this time had to be different.

And the identity of the serial killer was often foreshadowed, even as it was being concealed by director Jon Avnet's clever audience misdirection.

Before even being halfway through this flick's first reel, I had it narrowed down to three possibilities for "person probably gone psycho" and my first choice in the category of "most likely to be a serial killer in this Hollywood movie" turned out to be correct.

Pairing these two fine actors together again, as even the late singer/songwriter Buck Owens would probably have expected, did give us a good movie, but, because of that pairing, this flick will always be compared with that one.

<BruceHornsby> "That's just the way it is, some things never change" <BruceHornsby>

And I think "Heat" comes up a bit better in script and storyline, if I am to be pinned down.

It also came along first and that probably helps here as it often does in many things.

But Buck the Buckaroo concluded that "nothing else matters..." and, as a music and movie fan, so have I.

I simply liked the earlier movie better, but I'm glad I went to see "Righteous Kill," rather than watching "Heat" for a third time.

Go see what you think, if these comments haven't already done their movie spoiling worst as I warned you they might.

 

[YoLaDu]

watch Heat again.

Pacino and DiNero are not on screen as the same time. Unless you count the back of head of some stand in.

 

[RockyBalboa]

Get the director's cut of Heat. They were filmed together. It was just edited so that they never appeared in the same shot.

Plus they were in the same at the airport shootout at the end.

 

[FAST FRED]

I think they filmed the well-received coffee shop scene in "Heat" together, although Hollywood has fooled us before.

I remember reading that Marlon Brando and Rod Stieger weren't actually together in the back seat of that cab during the famous "I coulda been a contenduh" scene, when Elia Kazan's "On The Waterfront' was filmed.

Look at the end of Trivia:

The Link

I haven't read any such thing about "Heat's" coffee shop scene, have you YoDaLu and do you have a link?

 

[YoLaDu]

i dont have a link and but it is pretty interesting that Michael Mann would make a conscious decision to not have them in the same shot, even once.

It's mostly a rumor that is probably untrue.

 

[RockyBalboa]

I doubt it even crossed his mind when he was filming it.

And again, get the directors cut, you can see them together in the coffee shop for like an hour.

 

[S.A.Diva]

Gotta admit I was hyped to see this movie...thought it was pretty good.

Pacino is looking old...DeNiro is looking good for his age...definitely not as good as"Heat" but still worth seeing it...