“Righteous Kill,” a cop movie directed by Jon Avnet and written by Russell Gewirtz, reunites, for the first time in thirteen years, two iconic actors who have managed to set the audience on fire many a time throughout their careers. Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, who starred together back in 1995 in the movie “Heat,” a crime saga revolving around the lives of a detective-portrayed by the latter star- and a thief named Neil McCauley, played by the former actor, are now the leads in the 2008 “Righteous Kill” film. The “Ouverture Films” release tells the story of two veteran NYPD detectives trying to determine whether a recent murder is in any way connected to an older case they closed several years before.

Despite the thriller’s great cast, the reviews it received following its release on September 12 were rather poor.

Critics complained that, although the plot is fairly tortuous, there are no unpredictable events during the movie’s 100 minute full runtime, since, about a quarter of an hour into the film, one has already figured out where the story is headed. The picture begins with a hint to the second plot line (the first being the investigation of the murder of a young girl), which follows the NYPD’s efforts to find a serial killer who is rampantly doing in pimps, rapists, child molesters and other city scumbags. Nevertheless, the killer’s identity is no mystery to the audience, given that the black-and-white videotape of De Niro’s character, Turk, on which he confesses to having committed 14 murders, leaves almost no room for doubt. It’s a perfect case of doing the wrong thing for a good reason.

Dubbed by some “88 Minutes II,” a 2007 movie starring Al Pacino in the role of a forensic psychiatrist who helped the FBI put a serial killer on death row, „Righteous Kill” further disappoints the public by being no different from all the otherveteran-cop movies. The entire story is just another way to say what has been said many times before: dealing with cruelty, crime and pure evil for a long time eventually takes its toll on a man’s soul, giving rise to a messianic complex that gnaws away at the very core of one’s life and beliefs.