On DVD. Lawyer’s theatrical review is here.
Unlike their previous co-starring films (The Godfather Part II, Heat), Al Pacino and Robert De Niro spend lots of screen time together as detective partners. The two are nearing retirement and have become fed up with a judicial system that allows pedophiles and rapists free on technicalities and insufficient evidence. A vigilante begins killing some of the said perpetrators and an investigation begins to find the poetry-writing serial killer. De Niro is shown early in the film confessing to the murders and it appears we’re in for a character study about loyalty, trust, and honor- and that's what we get for a while . . .
But in a post-Sixth Sense world, not even Pacino and De Niro are immune to contrived plot twists only designed to trick the audience. It’s nice to see De Niro sorta acting for a change after phoning the last decade in, but since breast-feeding that baby in Meet the Fockers, he’s going to have to bring it much harder than this to get any respect back. Pacino is still doing his goofy improv acting thing, but this is a much better character (and film) than his last Jon Avnet-directed outing 88 Minutes. Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguizamo do some solid character work as 2 younger detectives working on the case. But they are all eclipsed by Brian Dennehy (their boss), who had some memorable roles in the 80s (First Blood, Silverado). He completely owns every scene he’s in and his subtlety is more impressive than Pacino’s showboating and De Niro’s mannerisms. Rounding out the cast, Carla Gugino is a CSI skank. Gugino: A. Film: B-
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