Word: righteousness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Heat they spent nearly three hours in the same movie - with De Niro running a heist gang and Pacino as the pursuing cop - but their only encounters were, literally, a cup of coffee and a shootout. So there ought to be a little want-see attending Righteous Kill, a police suspenser where the two stars are finally together for a whole film...
...also responsible for this year's lamentable 88 Minutes, also starring Pacino - gives the new movie the grimy New York look and a generic intensity. Yet this is a film that missed its moment. Instead of the meeting of maestros at the top of their form, Righteous Kill has the feeling of Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds facing off for the first time in an exhibition game. It's like Old Timers' Day at the Motion Picture Home...
...zillion other movies: What if a cop were a serial killer? A peace officer certainly has motive, means and opportunity to knock off a dozen or so malefactors who probably deserve to die but have escaped conviction. The cop could truly believe that killing them is nothing less than righteous. He might think of himself as De Niro's Travis Bickle did in Taxi Driver, using his gun to wash the New York streets clean of their wretched refuse. And at the beginning of this film we are shown a grainy video of Turk (De Niro), who says...
...years? Rooster describes retirement as "death with benefits." His work is his life, and he won't give either of them up. But a movie demands a little verisimilitude. Impolitic as it might be to make this observation, it's also unavoidable when talking about a movie like Righteous Kill: the camera is a remorseless appraiser of advancing...
...since, say, Dog Day Afternoon in 1975, he went the other way, playing the little guy who compensates by going big. It's a tactic more theatrical than cinematic, and Pacino usually makes it work by ensuring that he dominates any film he's in. A two-hander like Righteous Kill, though, demands teamwork. Pacino is still laying it all on the table; by playing more subtly, by demonstrating that being seen is often enough, De Niro underacts him under...