What do Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro have in common? Multiple awards after performing in decent movies and easy paychecks after coasting through Righteous Kill.
Pacino and DeNiro are undeniably good actors. It is almost always worth watching them perform alone, and seeing them perform together should be a rare opportunity to witness art on the big screen. But do remember- this is a cop-thriller. Which means that no matter how noteworthy the talent is, they’ve still got a criminal record following them- after all, predictability is easy and lucrative enough to be considered crime, and, like the villains in their films, screenwriters are now just begging to be caught.
The film follows DeNiro and Pacino as detective team Turk and Rooster, two aging, tough-guy cops after a poetry-writing, bad guy-murdering serial killer. Further investigation leads the team of detectives (DeNiro and Pacino, with John Leguizamo and Donnie Wahlberg as Detectives Simon Perez and Ted Riley, respectively, led by Brian Dennehy as Lieutenant Hingis and shadowed by CSI Karen Corelli, played by Carla Gugino) to determine that the killer is almost certainly a cop- a fact supported by both cinematic past precedent and the confessional film-footage of one of the main characters interspersed throughout the movie.
The film doesn’t particularly feel like a movie at first. For a long time, I forgot that I was in the theater, and wondered, instead, which season of Law and Order I was watching. Then Karen Corelli was introduced, and I realized my mistake- I was watching CSI, not Law and Order. And then dramatic music started playing, and the lighting changed, and I remembered that this was, in fact, a DeNiro and Pacino blockbuster. Once this became clear, the plot became slightly more interesting.
The trouble with genre clichés is that they become clichés for a reason. The movie isn’t a complete waste of time, as it manages to be entertaining- it was enjoyable to watch the investigation team attempt to solve a murder that the audience thinks it has already solved. Though the way the plot is set up does put the film into a bit of a bind- after all, if there is no plot twist, the audience will feel gypped out of a surprise ending, and if there is a plot twist, the film becomes yet another tiresome thriller. The serial killer’s antics are typical- after all, what serial killers don’t leave appropriate rhyming quatrains on their victims’ bodies these days? But that said, these little quirks keep the film-goer’s interest.
If all else fails, the viewer can fall back on the little pleasures. Moments where the acting is so realistic that the audience may as well be sitting in an actual precinct. Several times, the actors talk over each other so loudly that it is impossible to understand a single word of dialogue, and once or twice, DeNiro and Pacino utter monologues that consist of nothing more than a few innocuous words framed by strings of profanity. It’s touching moments of realism like these that make modern films worth watching. Unless, of course, you’re looking for high art.
If that’s what you’re looking for, look for other Pacino and DeNiro films. Even this Oscar-winning investigative team can’t save this film.
Grade: C+
No comments:
Post a Comment