Righteous Kill
Headline: ** Engaging, But Ultimately Forgettable and Gratuitous **
Title: RIGHTEOUS KILL
Quality: * * Acceptability: -3
SUBTITLES: None
WARNING CODES:
Language: LLL
Violence: VVV
Sex: SS
Nudity: N
RATING: R
RELEASE: September 12, 2008
TIME: 100 minutes
STARRING: Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Gina Carino, John Leuizamo, Brian Dennehy, Donnie Wahlberg, and Curtis Jackson
DIRECTOR: Jon Avnet
PRODUCERS: Avi Lerner, Boaz Davidson, Randall Emmett, Daniel M. Rosenberg, Alexandra Milchan, Rob Cowan, and Lati Grobman
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short and George Furia
WRITER: Russell Gewirtz
BASED ON THE NOVEL/PLAY BY: N/A
DISTRIBUTOR: Overture Films
CONTENT: (PaPa, H, C, B, Ab, LLL, VVV, SS, N, A, DD, M) Strong, somewhat mixed, pagan worldview in a gritty police thriller, with pagan, humanist, Christian, moral, and anti-Christian elements jumbled together in a mix that doesn't quite jell, including a pedophile Catholic priest is murdered with two protagonists having nominal vestiges of a Catholic faith (including a short scene where they are shown praying in a church) and a couple comments about losing one's faith but comments are not really referring to religion; at least 175 mostly strong obscenities, four strong profanities, one light profanity, an obscene gesture, some crude comments; very strong violence with some blood includes bloody wounds on head of young female corpse, people shot to death, vigilante murders, man falls from a height after being shot, implied beating and possible implied rape of woman; strong sexual content includes depicted fornication, implied fornication, implied sadomasochism, some sexual comments meant as sarcastic comedy, and brief suggestive dancing; upper male nudity, woman in underwear, and female dancers with short skirts in crowded dance nightclub; alcohol use; smoking and reference to cocaine use; and, vigilante justice, lying, framing an evil criminal for a crime he didn't commit.
GENRE: Police Thriller
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Adults
Please address your comments to:
Robert Clasen, Chairman/CEO
Starz LLC
(Starz Entertainment, Overture Films, Anchor Bay Entertainment)
8900 Liberty Circle
Englewood, CO 80112
Phone: (720) 852-7700
Fax: (720) 852-8555
Website: www.starz.com
SUMMARY: RIGHTEOUS KILL stars Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino in a foul-mouthed movie about two veteran police detectives in New York City investigating a series of vigilante slayings of evil criminals. RIGHTEOUS KILL is exciting enough, and Pacino and DeNiro are fun to watch, but the movie is somewhat forgettable and contains constant gratuitous foul language and strong sexual content.
IN BRIEF:
RIGHTEOUS KILL stars Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino in a foul-mouthed movie about two veteran police detectives in New York City investigating a series of vigilante slayings of evil criminals. DeNiro plays an angry detective nicknamed Turk. Pacino plays his more mild-mannered partner, Rooster. After an opening that goes in several directions at once, their boss assigns Turk and Rooster to head the investigation into the vigilante slayings. When another detective working with them suggests the killer is a cop, Turk gets very angry. He gets angrier when suspicion lands on him. Two surprising twists wrap up the story in an exciting finale.
RIGHTEOUS KILL is exciting enough. The acting and direction, especially DeNiro and Pacino, are also professional and watchable. The movie is somewhat forgettable otherwise. Some viewers may guess at least one, if not both, of the major twists. The movie's constant foul language and offensive sexual content also take away from its enjoyment. This will be especially true for media-wise viewers. The negative content will greatly hurt the movie's appeal to mainstream audiences, despite the obvious attraction of putting DeNiro and Pacino together again in a movie.
NOTE from Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide Magazine. For more information from a Christian perspective, order the latest Movieguide Magazine by calling 1-800-899-6684(MOVI) or visit our website at www.movieguide.org. Movieguide is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out. Movieguide now offers an online subscription to its magazine version, atwww.movieguide.org. The magazine, which comes out 25 times a year, contains many informative articles and reviews that help parents train their children to be media-wise consumers.
