RIGHTEOUS KILL is what passes for competent mainstream entertainment these days - I was just musing on that and mentally comparing it with another film I recently felt suffered from a similar delusion, BLACK SWAN, when I discovered (with an ironic laugh, I assure you) that Jon Avnet - the director of RIGHTEOUS KILL - was also the producer of BLACK SWAN. The films both take a plot idea - a very cliched one - and then develop it into a script without worrying too much about a plot. The film starts with one of the two stars (De Niro and Pacino) confessing to a series of vigilante murders. Then we flashback to find that the two central characters are the cops investigating the murders. Everything points to one of the cops being the killer - everybody except his buddy thinks he is the killer. So, call me dumb if you want, but given film cliches and given the two stars on board and being 100% certain that the guy we see confessing isn't going to be the culprit I was sure who the killer would be....and this is meant to be a mystery? If it ain't Pacino its going to be De Niro - or vice versa. I'm a huge Pacino fan and I certainly like De Niro despite his long string of poor film choices but this second outing together (if we discount the second GODFATHER movie) is not worthy of either star. Of the two De Niro comes off best here and poor Al seems to be having another bad hair day. The plot might have worked thirty or forty years ago but today a mystery plot that reveals the answer to the mystery in the first scene just won't do. Rating **
