righteous kill Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The predictably and sadly stinky Righteous Kill, starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as cranky old cops trying to solve a possible serial killer case and make old rights wrong etc. etc ad infinitum, has a video game. No, I didn't know it either! Probably because it was put out by Merscom and Starz Media and is a downloadable PC game that can be yours for just $6.99 via Big Fish Games. And now there's a sequel called Righteous Kill: Revenge of the Poet Killer, which can also be yours for $6.99.

Both games have the barest connections to the actual movie. Here's the description of the first game:

"Step into the shoes of Erica Dean as she investigates crime scenes in New York City. It`s a man hunt for a vigilante on a killing spree through 16 locations containing over a thousand hidden objects. With the help of Sergeant Vasquez, Erica will use clues she collects in a number of detective-themed mini games. Inspired by the motion picture film, Righteous Kill features clips from the movie and 15 animated levels."

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro finally co-starred together last year in Righteous Kill, and now they're teaming up again: to sue the film's distributor, Overture, and the Tutima watch manufacturer for allegedly misusing their names to sell watches. Yes, these two will appear in terrible films until the cows come home -- but don't you DARE suggest they endorse a particular brand of wristwatch.

According to the Reuters news service, a series of ads last year (such as the one pictured) used the actors' names, voices, and faces to endorse Tutima watches. In addition to print advertisements, a clip from Righteous Kill appeared on Tutima's website. The actors claim they never gave permission for such an endorsement, and that they'd have said no if they'd been asked.

In the words of the lawsuit, De Niro has only ever endorsed a product "under very specific and compelling circumstances," and Pacino "has never commercially endorsed any product or service in the United States." The stars of 88 Minutes and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle have standards, you know. (I suspect one of those standards is that they'll do whatever you want; you just gotta pay them.)

Actors do have the right to control when their names, images, and voices are used for commercial purposes, of course. If Overture really didn't make the proper arrangements with Pacino and De Niro before allowing Tutima to use them, well ... they're gonna be in trouble. According to the Associated Press, Overture was surprised by the lawsuit, takes all legal action very seriously, etc., etc.

Pineapple Express
It might seem like your everyday stoner comedy, but Pineapple Express is a strange comedic beast. It was helmed by dramatic indie filmmaker David Gordon Green, it brought Huey Lewis and the News back to the world of cinema songwriting, and, of course, it gave us an excellent duo to get high with -- Seth Rogen and James Franco. Buy it on DVD or Blu-ray.

Righteous Kill
Righteous Kill is right, but not in the way that makes the eyes blaze with excitement, but the way that makes you groan in disappointment. While joining heavy weights Robert De Niro and Al Pacino was a big to-do, that was the only noteworthy piece of this police v. serial killer story. Still, it's Rob and Al, so if you're curious: Rent it on DVD or Blu-ray.

Disaster Movie
Oh, if only we could be back in the days of Airplane. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer show no signs of stopping their terrible spoof addiction, and this time it's all about disasters. Need I say more? Skip it on DVD or Blu-ray.

Hit the jump for more new releases.

Okay, so Righteous Kill (381 screens) wasn't the world's greatest movie. At best it was rudimentary -- and at worst, it was outright stupid. But I have to admit, I got a giant-sized kick out of seeing Robert De Niro and Al Pacino together for the first time (aside from not appearing together in The Godfather Part II and appearing together only briefly in Heat). They had a wonderful banter going that suggested they'd been pals for 30 years. However, we had a right to expect more from two guys who are considered among the greatest screen actors of all time.

This label, I think, has only hurt their careers, because now we tend to think of them in terms of hot and cold. Everyone remembers De Niro in Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and Pacino in The Godfather films and Scarface, but what have they done for us lately? And why on earth did Pacino win an Oscar for Scent of a Woman, of all things? Then we have their most recent films to contend with, De Niro's amiable but lightweight What Just Happened? (36 screens) and Pacino's ultra-lame 88 Minutes. But let me suggest that we ignore the hot-cold concept and concentrate instead on some warmth? After all, both actors have given terrific performances in recent years that deserve some consideration.

Welcome back to another installment of Insert Caption -- the game that's nothing compared to a romantic night in Rodanthe. Last week we asked you to cough up a caption for those fellas from Righteous Kill, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Congrats to Matt N (who grabs an excellent DVD pack featuring The Godfather, Scarface and Heat) for a caption we definitely won't fughetabout.


1. "This is interesting... he just saved a bunch of money on his car insurance." -- Matt N.

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Once again, this week we're reuniting with a memorable on-screen duo and celebrating the romantic Nights in Rodanthe, starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane. And once again, Diane Lane seems to be the unfaithful one (what is it with these two?) as she, playing an unhappily married woman, strikes up a spark or two with a doctor (Gere) traveling to to visit his estranged son. The three folks behind our favorite captions will take home one Nights in Rodanthe Sloan Beach/Book Tote with embroidered title treatment, one insulated tote with wine and cheese service for two, two wine charms, one copy of "Nights in Rodanthe," one book light, one Ultra Hyde bookmark, one long sleeved Nights in Rodanthe t-shirt and one key tag photo frame. Now if you can't do a little wooing with all of that ... well, you're on your own. Sound off below.



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It would be nice to be able to say that the Coens are finally getting some drawing power, but I suspect the insane cast of Burn After Reading -- Pitt, Clooney, Malkovich, Swinton, McDormand -- had something to do with its exceptionally strong $19.4 million bow, the Coens' strongest ever. It barely beat out The Family That Preys, which opened to $18.02 -- slightly below par for Tyler Perry, though still nabbing the highest per-screen average in the top 10 on just over 2000 screens.

The third-place, $16.5 million take for Righteous Kill seems about right: a compromise between the draw of De Niro and Pacino, and the toxic buzz surrounding the film. As for The Women, $10 million isn't exactly gangbusters, but probably more than Picturehouse had any right to expect given that the movie came out of nowhere.

Anna Faris's The House Bunny has turned into a minor hit; it took a 22% drop from last weekend, and has passed the $40 million mark. Not bad for a late-August release with no real star power. Bangkok Dangerous is dead in the water, dropping from 4th to 8th place; it will top out at around $15 million.

And I can't resist noting what happened to Proud American, the patriotic half-doc that was dumped into 750 screens this weekend by Slowhand Cinema. It landed below the top 25, with $135,000 and a $180 per-screen average. That's for the whole weekend. If you take $6.50 as an average ticket price (a bit below the actual average, but probably reasonable given that the interest for this film was probably not in major metropolitan markets), that's comes out to an awesome 28 people per theater, and around 2 people per show. Whoo!

The full estimates after the jump.

About a week ago, word spread that Robert De Niro had walked off the set of Martin Campbell's Edge of Darkness. A spokesman for De Niro explained it to us like idiots: "Sometimes things don't work out; it's called creative differences." De Niro would have co-starred with Mel Gibson as an agent tasked with cleaning up evidence of a murder Gibson's homicide detective is trying to investigate.

It seems that Campbell has found his replacement: the great Ray Winstone, who is currently in negotiations to step into the role. Winstone obviously doesn't have De Niro's profile, which is a loss for a film that's benefited from a considerable amount of hype before even starting principal photography (most of it having to do with Mel Gibson's return to acting after six years). But he certainly has the chops.

De Niro, meanwhile, faces a test of his drawing power this weekend with the release of Righteous Kill. The marketing campaign has concentrated exclusively on the presence of De Niro and Al Pacino, so the question will be how many people the two of them can get into the theaters. Not that De Niro has anything to prove, as evidenced by his walking off the set of a major film two days into shooting.

Welcome to another edition of Insert Caption -- where your comments are righteous and the prizes are, indeed, killer. Last week we asked you to have a laugh with George Clooney and Frances McDormand, and then leave a caption for a photo from their new movie Burn After Reading. Warning: The only thing the following winning captions are burning is a giant hole in your funny bone. (Okay, that was lame ...)

1. "Frannie's reaction to George's "stretch move" was one for which he was totally unprepared." Charles P.

2. "While the general consensus was that Syriana was a somber geopolitical thriller about the unintended consequences of the U.S.'s dependence on foreign oil, those who actually "got" it found the movie to be quite funny..." Matt S.

3. "Although Frances was enjoying the movie, George's good time was tempered by the realization that he shouldn't have put butter on the popcorn and still utilized the old "cut a hole in the bottom of the bucket" trick." -- Ray R.

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This week we're ready to rumble with a coupla goodfellas from the neighborhood, if you know what I mean. These guys ... these are good guys, and you may know them by their street names: Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Both star as two tough New York City detectives in Righteous Kill (in theaters today), and the one lucky sonuvagun behind our favorite caption will sneak away with one Righteous Kill DVD gift pack containing The Godfather, Scarface & Heat and one Righteous Kill movie poster. Talk about an offer you can't refuse. Sound off below!



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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.

Box office numbers were way down this week, letting Bangkok Dangerous take the top spot with a figure that is frankly nothing to brag about. Here's the rundown:

1. Bangkok Dangerous: $7.8 million
2. Tropic Thunder: $7.2 million
3. The Dark Knight: $5.5 million
4. The House Bunny: $5.5 million
5. Traitor: $4.2 million

We've got five new releases this week. Will any of these be able to bolster a sagging box office? Let's see.

Burn After Reading
What's It All About: In the newest film from Ethan and Joel Coen, Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand star as health club employees who find a CD full of classified information left behind by a CIA agent played by John Malkovich. George Clooney also stars.
Why It Might Do Well: This is an awesome cast and those are the No Country For Old Men guys behind the camera. The film also scored a 75% Fresh rating at Rottentomatoes.com.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Jennifer Aniston's followers may not have forgiven Brad yet.
Number of Theaters: 2,300
Prediction: $12 million