Preview: Righteous Kill (2008)

• Poster: C-

Review:

Someone forgot to send out the memo that black-white-and-red is out. This poster is entirely unexceptional. It lacks style or grace and does very little to entice an audience to the theater.

• Trailer: C+; C

Review:

Banking on the upsurge in popularity of police crime dramas, the makers hope to make Al Pacino and Robert De Niro a huge draw, but considering their last team up 13 years ago in Heat was far from a box office success, they can hope that The Departed's influence has not waned. The film doesn't look like anything more than your dime store French Connection reinvention.
Perhaps afraid their plot would be ruined with the first trailer, this second trailer makes Pacino and De Niro out to be "good" cops trying to stop "bad" cops. It still gives the impression that one, if not both, are actively participating in the "serial" killing. The new trailer does nothing to improve on the original and looks more and more like a police procedural than it did the first go around.

Oscar Prospects:

Unless this is a huge hit with audiences and/or critics, I can't see the Academy going for this. The last similarly themed film, We Own the Night, was similarly poised and was equally unsuccessful in gaining Oscar recognition.

Release Date:

• September 12, 2008

Full Review Synopsis:

I have not seen this film.

-Wesley Lovell (March 9, 2008) Original

-Wesley Lovell (May 25, 2008) New Trailer; New Poster