Righteous Kill (Jon Avnet, 2008)

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Antoine Doinel · #1 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 7:16 pm

De Niro and Pacino are back together in this film, written by Russel Gerwitz (Inside Man). They both play NYC cops on the hunt for a serial killer who may also be an officer.

I'm looking forward to this even though for some ungodly reason, 50 Cent is in the cast. According to IMDB, Martin Scorsese is rumored to have a small role as well.

It's sort of hard to make out anything with the unnecessary audio assault of generic metal, and the Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson credit has me worried. But the very last few seconds of DeNiro snarling like a bull have some promise.

Here's a teaser and some set pics and more pics.

flyonthewall2983 · #2 Post by **flyonthewall2983** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:04 pm

The trailer looks terrible, but I'm only assuming that this is because the studio had a tiny budget. Of which I'm sure most of it was used to get the Nine Inch Nails song in it, which couldn't be more out of place. However, I do agree with Antoine about the final moments of the trailer.

Also, it doesn't help that it appears the current season of Dexter beat this film to the punch as far as elements of the plot are concerned.

Len · #3 Post by **Len** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:41 am

Righteous Kill sounds like a title for a new Steven Seagal direct to video-movie.

...and the trailer doesn't look much better.

bkimball · #4 Post by **bkimball** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 8:38 pm

Just for fun, the writers of Dexter should have an episode named "Righteous Kill" next season.

Fletch F. Fletch · #5 Post by **Fletch F. Fletch** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:14 pm

L.A. Times article.

flyonthewall2983 · #6 Post by **flyonthewall2983** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:50 pm

Could you c&p the article here, please?

Fletch F. Fletch · #7 Post by **Fletch F. Fletch** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:43 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Could you c&p the article here, please?

Sure thing.

Pacino and De Niro. 'Nuff said.

Directing the two greats was like a master class, says Jon Avnet.

By Mark Olsen, Special to The Times

January 13, 2008

ROBERT De Niro and Al Pacino -- the names alone conjure a certain kind of streetwise intensity, an acting style of emotional soul-bearing right out of film's '70s heyday. Both rather famously appeared, if separately, in "The Godfather Part II," and it wasn't until the 1995 film "Heat" that they finally arrived on screen together, albeit briefly.

In "Righteous Kill," opening this fall, Pacino and De Niro at long last share the screen for a significant amount of a movie's running time. Coming from new studio Overture Films and directed by veteran Jon Avnet ("Fried Green Tomatoes") from a screenplay by Russell Gewirtz ("The Inside Man"), the latest outing with these legendary actors finds them playing a pair of grizzled New York City cops. With its serial killer through-line and undercurrent of kinky sex, the film could come across as a grubby, late-'90s erotic thriller were it not for the two stars who have three Oscars between them, making "Righteous Kill" something akin to watching two virtuoso jazz musicians work their way around an old standard.

Speaking recently in his West Los Angeles production offices, Avnet said it was the project's mix of lowdown genre and high-style acting talent that appealed to him. "What I thought the twin masters were, and what interested me, was that it's a genre piece and you have to satisfy the whodunit and the procedural elements, but the purpose of that was to serve the characters and the drama. And what better actors than Bob and Al to do a character piece?"

As someone who considers himself a fan of acting, Avnet said the experience of watching Pacino and De Niro at work did not disappoint.

"In a way 'master class' is not a big enough word. I've watched Al do numerous takes, and I've seen his imagination turn into behavior in a way that is astounding. That's what makes him Al Pacino. I've watched Bob do stuff that's so small and then go large in a way that catches you totally off-guard.

"They're both very opaque, you don't know whether they're going to kiss someone or kill them. And that suspense is what makes their performances so intense in the moment."

Though the actors may have their own trademarks -- Pacino's funky bravado and De Niro's interiorized angst -- in "Righteous Kill" they seem to have transferred some of their quirks back and forth as if by osmosis. Pacino brings forward a strain of seriousness that he often steamrolls over, and De Niro looks to actually be enjoying himself.

Highlighting the actors' interactions was Avnet's main goal, hoping for some on-screen alchemy. "They have very different processes," Avnet said. "Al is a trained theatrical actor who can rehearse and rehearse and improve and improve. Bob likes the spontaneity of coming in and doing it. They adjusted to each other, but it's very different styles of working. Which is not that atypical a problem for a director. Often some actors get it all in the first take, some like eight or 10. You're always trying to deal with that."

Avnet found the best way to deal with the differing styles of his stars was to just capture as much as he could simply and directly, keeping them both in the frame whenever possible.

"There were no laws, there were no obvious conclusions," he said. "I wanted to shoot two-shots whenever possible, because I was hoping their timing was going to be really special and I wouldn't have to tinker with it. I wanted to allow them to play off each other. To be able to watch two people who are great at what they do, you feel a responsibility to observe and appreciate it and to whatever extent possible let it brand itself on your brain and your soul and then to share it. There's a tendency to think what they do is easy, but there's a lot of work that goes into it."

Making a movie that will invariably be mentioned in the same breath as "The Godfather Part II" and "Heat," films frequently given the "modern classic" sobriquet, as well as following in the footsteps of directors Francis Ford Coppola and Michael Mann might seem daunting to some but not for Avnet.

"You don't do this job if you're not used to pressure and dealing with anxiety and anxious people," he said. "I happen to be a fan of Michael Mann's, I enjoyed 'Heat' and I really enjoyed the big scene with Bob and Al together. This kettle of fish is a whole movie of the two of them.

"When you say they're good, it's not like they're doing Shakespeare, they're playing New York City detectives; they are as New York as it gets. De Niro and Pacino the way you want to see them." Sounds like Overture's found its tag line.

Antoine Doinel · #8 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 4:27 am

Any hope I had for this film went right out the window with this teaser trailer.

Avnet rips (or attempts to) from Mann and Scorsese so completely (right down to the use of the Rolling Stones) its embarrassing.

#9 Post by **domino harvey** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 4:58 am

Using the Rolling Stones in your movie should be outlawed. Where is the special interest fund behind good taste to lean on the MPPA?

Fletch F. Fletch · Mon Mar 10, 2008 1:30 pm

At least the first trailer used NIN.

But hey, on the plus side, it looks like Carla Gugino gets naked again.

blessingx · #11 Post by **blessingx** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:03 pm

The teaser is not encouraging.

At least Pacino and De Niro look like (and the below article confirms) they share screen time, unlike Mann's Heat. Also teaser is free of Pacino recent patented Booya techniques. It certainly would be nice to see two of our finest actors in a decent drama (crime or otherwise) though.

#12 Post by **domino harvey** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:05 pm

Fletch F. Fletch wrote:But hey, on the plus side, it looks like Carla Gugino gets naked again.

She's certainly found her niche

flyonthewall2983 · Fri May 23, 2008 10:13 am

Trailer 2.

Antoine Doinel · #14 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Fri May 23, 2008 12:28 pm

The guy who cut the trailer and missed the Lennon/McCartney line with a Rolling Stones song being played over top needs to be fired.

As much as it's great to see DeNiro and Pacino sharing significant screen time (and Pacino in non-yelling mode), the trailer feels like little more than a warmed over episode of Law & Order. Also, with 50 Cent - sorry, Curtis Jackson - nowhere in this trailer, can we assume he's the serial killer?

#15 Post by **domino harvey** » Fri May 23, 2008 3:46 pm

Historically there's never been a black serial killer, so unless this movie is even stupider than it sounds, no

Antoine Doinel · #16 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Fri May 23, 2008 4:47 pm

Maybe this film will be history in the making.

The historical aspect being how someone like Jon Avnet managed to rope Al Pacino into not one, but two, hilariously overwrought "thrillers" that when not being unbelievably dumb, are ripping directly from far better films that came before it.

A terrible film deserves an equally terrible poster.

Murdoch · #17 Post by **Murdoch** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 3:57 am

Antoine Doinel wrote:A terrible film deserves an equally terrible poster.

That poster makes it seem as if De Niro, Pacino, and some fella named Righteous Kill are starring in Everyone Respects the Gun.

flyonthewall2983 · Fri Sep 12, 2008 2:49 pm

Top Ten Reasons I Like Being An Actor

aox · #19 Post by **aox** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 2:56 pm

I know we should rush to judge this film before seeing it, but it looks fucking terrible.

Maybe they can try another film together in some Lean-esque epic of another adaptation of a Ondaatje novel?

flyonthewall2983 · Fri Sep 12, 2008 3:18 pm

I always thought it would be cool if they did a comedy together, but that's just me. And I don't think it looks terrible, I'd watch it just to get the bad taste of Bangkok Dangerous out of my mouth.

karmajuice · #21 Post by **karmajuice** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:08 pm

Historically there's never been a black serial killer, so unless this movie is even stupider than it sounds, no

Everything that you think hasn't happened, probably has. There are several others, too.

No comment on the movie. I still don't understand what happened to Pacino, perhaps because I've never seen a film he made in the eighties. Can anyone enlighten me?

chaddoli · #22 Post by **chaddoli** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 8:41 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Top Ten Reasons I Like Being An Actor

Wow, that was embarrassingly unfunny. And the film looks awful. These guys really aren't trying anymore.

moviscop · #23 Post by **moviscop** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 8:43 am

I saw Righteous Killl last night and was very disappointed. I did not have high expectations, in fact, I stepped into the theater expecting a Morgan Freeman thriller in the same vein as "Kiss The Girls."

The first problem with the film, amongst many more, was the horrendous editing. In 2008, never have I seen editing as unwatchable as in this film. The story was skipped and frayed to attempt an "original" resolution which caused the entire thing to pass over the audience with little to no emotional effect.

I actually felt bad for DeNiro and Pacino. Getting these two actors together was a magical mixture that was just poorly executed in every way.

This film is not The Departed, it isn't even as good as a Freeman/Judd thriller (really). It is a skippy, underdeveloped romp that deserves no more than a low box office total and a "straight to DVD" release.

#24 Post by **cdnchris** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:29 pm

What an awful film. Absolutely terrible, far worse than I ever would have expected. The story is nothing special (other than being compeltely unbelievable,) incredibly simplistic, made more complicated by its terrible editing. I've never seen such a horrifically edited film, which was done the way it was to hide a bleedingly obvious "twist" you can see coming a few minutes in.

And did the guy who wrote "Inside Man" really write this? Maybe that script was a shit heap, too, lifted by Lee's directing (giving what should have been an incredibly formulaic caper plot a bit of a kick up) but I still can't believe the same guy penned this awful, awful script. What made it worse were the sequences where I'm assuming everyone felt they had to give more to De Niro and Pacino to do together (as if to outdo the coffee scene in "Heat",) having them just sit and talk about shit, with some of the worst dialogue I've heard in recent memory, most of it given to Pacino still doing his annoying "but you CAN'T watch my television set, Ralph!" delivery thing.

And if I ever see De Niro banging whatever-the-hell-her-name-is from behind again I may have to stab my eyes out with a grapefruit spoon.

I put "88-Minutes" on my NetFlix queue because I have to see this other Avnet/Pacino collaboration. Despite what people say I can't buy that movie being any worse than this.

hot_locket · #25 Post by **hot_locket** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 6:09 am

cdnchris wrote:I put "88-Minutes" on my NetFlix queue because I have to see this other Avnet/Pacino collaboration. Despite what people say I can't buy that movie being any worse than this.

You are in for the treat of all treats.

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