Righteous Kill
Short description
Two veteran New York City detectives, Turk and Rooster, are close to retirement when a killing pulls them into a case that echoes one they closed years earlier. The victim is a known criminal who escaped punishment, and a short poem left at the scene points to the killer's motive: targeting those the law failed to convict. As more such figures turn up dead, the pair must consider whether the man they locked away for a similar string of murders was actually guilty, and whether the real killer has been free all along. Their investigation is complicated when suspicion falls on them and two younger detectives, Perez and Riley, are brought in to work the same case.
Jon Avnet directed the film, which sits between the 2007 thriller 88 Minutes and the 2011 drama Have a Little Faith in his filmography, from a screenplay by Russell Gewirtz. Robert De Niro and Al Pacino play Turk and Rooster, heading a cast that also includes 50 Cent, Carla Gugino, John Leguizamo and Donnie Wahlberg.
Released in 2008, the film had a budget of 60 million dollars and took in about 78 million worldwide. Audiences have been lukewarm: it holds a 6 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 96,000 votes and a 5.9 out of 10 on TMDB from a small number of ratings. Critics were harsher still, giving it 4.2 out of 10 across 146 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- In the scene with Spider and Turk’s phone conversation, rapper Papoose performs his song “Stylin’” at club 404.
- The initial version of the film was over 2 hours long, but the results of test screenings were unsatisfactory, and the film was urgently re-edited, cut down to 1 hour and 41 minutes, making it more concise. Fragments of the cut scenes can be seen in the trailer.
- Robert De Niro and Al Pacino stated in an interview that they were not entirely satisfied with the final result, that is, the film itself. Al Pacino even added that they would prefer to forget about their involvement in the project as soon as possible. Eleven years later, they both starred in Martin Scorsese's crime drama "The Irishman" (2019) and were very pleased with the result of their collaboration on set.
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