It should be considered a sin to finally reunite De Niro and Pacino on the big screen and pretty much waste the opportunity to do something really good. Clearly, two star actors together do not a great movie make, if the story is maybe just passable and, worse than that, it's presented in a very lukewarm fashion.

Up until now, after having only spent five minutes together at a coffee-shop table in "Heat", De Niro and Pacino had only been cast on the same film back in 1974 for the second installment of "The Godfather". Sadly they occupied two different story arcs, set in a different time and obviously never actually interacted. Overcoming what must have been a series of technicalities and financial difficulties, director Jon Avnet has brought the two together for almost all of the film's 100 minutes duration as detective partners chasing a psychopath who may not be who they (we?) think he is.

Lot of potential, right? Indeed and I can't say I hated this movie, only that I wanted much, much more. I mean, imagine Waters and Gilmour finally reuniting but instead of playing the good stuff deciding to tour only to play, say, rehashed Beatles covers. Anti-climax, right? The same happens in "Righteous Kill", as we get a shitload of dialogue between the two greats but it just isn't compelling enough. Unless you count Carla Gugino as the police officer who likes it rough.

The truth is that nothing in this movie is compelling or a novelty in the genre and if it had two unknowns in the leads its fate would most likely be a pass-through ticket straight to DVD/Cable release. One asks himself what have these two guys seen in the script to take the opportunity. But then again, I ask the same thing when I see De Niro in stuff like "Meet The Fockers" or Pacino in films like "S1m0ne" or "88 Minutes", so it should maybe come as no surprise, after all.

Definitely not one of the worst movies of 2008 - a lot of trash came out as always - but certainly one of the biggest disappointments of the year.

2/5