Whatever you do, don't throw Michael Mann's Heat (or God forbid, The Godfather II) into the DVD player prior to venturing off to your local theater to see Righteous Kill. Part of you might want to watch the film that last featured Robert De Niro and Al Pacino opposite one another to get you in the mood, but you'll surely be disappointed when the popcorn's run out and what you're watching on the big screen doesn't even belong in the same conversation as the film you just watched at home. That's because Righteous Kill is a predictable pile of pass me the paycheck, with both De Niro and Pacino phoning in a combination of past performances -- of men with tough, no-nonsense New York City exteriors and sly, slickly-delivered one-liners. This isn't the De Niro and Pacino of old ... it is, unfortunately, the older De Niro and Pacino.

Since Righteous Kill was written by Russell Gewirtz, there are definitely similarities between this and his last script, Inside Man -- both films are about men who do bad things for the good of the people. Righteous Kill opens with a voice-over from Detective Turk (De Niro) against some grainy, black-and-white video. Turk tells us he's killed 14 people during his years as an NYPD cop ("most people respect the badge ... everyone respects the gun"), but they were all lowlife thugs who deserved it. After some quick-yet-stylish (and somewhat annoying) cuts back and forth through time, we finally arrive at a pretty standard whodunnit with both Turk and his partner Rooster (Pacino) hot on the tail of a serial killer who leaves the equivalent of third-grade poetry with each of his victims. Roses are red, violets are blue ... I guessed all of Act III and so will you.

To paraphrase the scariest horror movie currently in theaters -- Mamma Mia! -- you wait long enough for a red-band trailer and then three come along at once, at least two of which deal with hitting the road in the name of action, so without further ado...

First up is the age-restricted trailer for this week's Death Race. I've yet to watch this one myself, since reactions posted elsewhere have assured me that whatever meager hopes I have for it being just a fun piece of trash cinema -- from a filmmaker who often lives down to that title -- are to be derived from moments shamelessly showcased therein. I'm no prude, having shelf space and soft spots set aside for the man's Event Horizon and the first Resident Evil, for the reliably butt-kicking Jason Statham and for the surprisingly present Joan Allen (him signing up for it, no big surprise, but her?). However, I'm roughly one trailer away (well, one feature away) from giving it the genuine benefit of the doubt.

Erik wrote about the original trailer back in June, and now one only has to wait until this Friday to determine just how fast and spurious this baby is.

After August comes September, and after Death Race comes Righteous Kill. The profanity-spiked red-band trailer for this NYPD thriller has been included after the jump...

Recently, many remarks have been cracked about running times of movies and the title 88 Minutes. "Is it too much to hope for that 88 Minutes will actually be 88 minutes?" our own James Rocchi asked me not too long ago. 88 minutes is a great running time for a movie, especially for busy critics with lots of movies to see and too many deadlines. You're in an out well before the welcome has worn out. Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons is considered a masterpiece at 88 minutes, even cut down from its original 132. Bill Murray knew the power of 88 minutes when he turned in his final cut of the classic Quick Change (1990). The Woodsman (2004) would have been unbearable at anything longer than 88 minutes. And whatever else you have to say about them, Scary Movie, Sexy Beast, Spy Kids, The Big Bounce, Transporter 2, Wristcutters: A Love Story and Horton Hears a Who! never seemed too long.

But, alas, 88 Minutes runs 108 minutes, and it's too long. Al Pacino (with a poofy, rooster-head haircut) plays high-profile forensic psychologist Jack Gramm, whose testimony was almost solely responsible for the conviction of accused murderer Jon Forster (Neal McDonough). Today, Forster is going to the chair, while maintaining his innocence, and while identical murders are still being committed throughout Seattle. At 10:17 a.m., Gramm gets a call, saying he has 88 minutes left to live. That call comes about a half hour into the movie, and the 88 minutes passes by in an awkward, compressed 70 minutes, give or take, followed by the expected conclusion and credits. Couldn't a cleverer filmmaker have set the movie in real time, and then used flashbacks to do all that boring preliminary stuff? Wouldn't the film have been much better if it just started with a bang, with that phone call?

Pictures can only say so much. Now, finally, we can see the action behind the icons for the upcoming Righteous Kill. You remember the flick, right? Jon Avnet's new crime drama brings together Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as two old, tough, New York City cops who are hunting down a vigilante killer, and the teaser is now online over at Yahoo.

It's not much of a tease -- the trailer pretty much lays out the whole story, rather than taunting us with just a voiceover, or a few vague scene shots. I have to say... It looks decent. I'm not thrilled, but I'm also not disappointed. The teaser starts out as some big-beat 8-Mile intro, and then dips into the ever-classic Sympathy for the Devil. It's rather apt, but really, this whole flick isn't about the story. It's about the players.

They may be weathered cops, Pacino and De Niro are two men that make age look tough. And while they might be the draws, and the reason this flick is getting so much buzz, there's also a solid cast behind them -- Carla Gugino, John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg, Brian Dennehy, 50 Cent, Dan Futterman... And, you might notice in the beginning of the trailer that the freed bad guy is Terry Serpico, that tough guy from Michael Clayton, who is almost a dead ringer for Anthony Michael Hall. Separated at birth? I think so.

Righteous Kill will shoot its way to audiences on September 12.

If you enjoy a good serial killer flick as much as the next person, then this might be the movie for you. The Italian best-selling novel I Kill (io uccido) by Giorgio Faletti is being adapted for the big screen. The book has been a huge hit in Italy and the father-and-son team of Aurelio De Laurentiis and Luigi De Laurentiis Jr. think they can make a movie version that will be just as big of a success.

Variety announced that Jon Avnet has been hired to direct the film version of the novel for Laurentiis' Flimauro productions. Avnet has a pretty extensive TV resume, but he is probably best known for directing Fried Green Tomatoes. Avent will also be reworking the script originally written by Davide Ferrario. I Kill focuses on a serial killer who develops a "rapport" with a call-in radio DJ to request songs that reflect the crime he is about to commit.

The film is due to start shooting next year on the Cote d'Azur, which is definitely one of the more glamorous locations for a serial killer flick I've seen in a while. No casting announcements have been made yet, but Filmauro is going to be keeping busy with their production of Empire of The Dragon, another adaptation of a novel by Massimo Manfredi about Roman militia in the service of an exiled Chinese prince.