Righteous Kill (15): Seeking to explain the place of royalty in the English constitution, Walter Bagehot urged critics to revere first and ask questions later. �We must not let in daylight upon the magic.�

Star rating: **
Dir: Jon Avnet
With: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, 50 Cent

Seeking to explain the place of royalty in the English constitution, Walter Bagehot urged critics to revere first and ask questions later. "We must not let in daylight upon the magic." Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, stars of Jon Avnet's crime thriller, are the nearest Hollywood gets to sovereigns, and how one wishes someone had recalled Bagehot's warning when this weak effort was being assembled. Righteous Kill throws open the curtains on an ageing King Bob and Emperor Al in a way that is far from flattering.

Much has been made of Avnet bringing the pair together. Michael Mann was the first to do so in Heat, but that was 13 years ago and they shared a total of just two scenes. Avnet gets his money's worth out of the Oscar-winners, barely letting a scene go by without them present. As a goodfella might say, when you have the stars of The Godfather, not to mention Goodfellas, Raging Bull, The Deer Hunter, Taxi Driver and Mean Streets,Scent of a Woman, Scarface, and Dog Day Afternoon on the same set, whaddya gonna do? We'll come back to that.

De Niro and Pacino play a pair of NYPD detectives in the twilight of their careers. Turk (De Niro) and Rooster (Pacino)are old school policemen, the kind whose ulcers are tested by such pesky intrusions as trial by jury and rules of evidence. If they catch bad guys they'd like to see them go down. Nothing wrong with that. Someone else shares their righteous views, however, and this someone is prepared to cross the line. When a number of wrong uns who have cheated justice start to turn up dead, Turk and Rooster take on the case, despite the warnings of their chief (Brian Dennehy) that failure in such a high profile investigation could bring their careers to a halt. Again, whaddya gonna do?

Shadowing the old bucks are two young officers,played by Donnie Wahlberg (brother of Mark)and John Leguizamo (Summer of Sam). To fuel a sub-plot, and pull in a young crowd, Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent, does a turn as a nightclub owner.

Add to this interesting mix of youth and legend, a screenplay by Russell Gewirtz, responsible for Spike Lee's super stylish and ultra clever thriller Inside Man (which is to have a sequel in 2010), and a good time should be had by all.

Yet the picture starts to unravel early on, due in large part to Avnet's sleep-inducing direction. Whatever training you need to hack it in the top flight psychological thriller genre, helming Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe isn't it. Give this director a homespun ensemble tale and he gets a result. Give him such big beasts as De Niro and Pacino and he lets them roar and run rings around him.

What we get from the famous pair is a kind of greatest hits compilation of what used to be their best moves, now faded from over-use. Here comes De Niro with his scowling,cussing,and jazz riff speechifying. There goes swaggering Pacino, bawling his head off and rolling those eyes.Both so badly want to be hip to the new crime beat as seen in TV's The Wire, and brought to the big screen so brilliantly in David Fincher's Zodiac and Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone.Avnet,too,tries to make his picture hip,dark and happening by shrouding the picture in a fog of urban gloom, while Gewirtz longs to supply the right kick ass words and attitude. In truth,however,Righteous Kill is Last of the Summer Wine with guns.

Again, whaddya gonna do? What Michael Mann did, for a start, which is get De Niro and Pacino together when they were still in their prime. Failing that, give their performances room to breathe. By keeping them apart for most of Heat, Mann allowed the anticipation to gather. He made each actor a part of a much bigger story, so that when they came face to face it felt like a grand finale to an epic venture. Avnet, in contrast, flogs them to death from the off, while they seem none too bothered about going through the same old motions yet again.

What could have been a decent, workmanlike thriller elevated by the presence of two legends ends up like a weekday afternoon television potboiler.

Yes there are plot twists and turns to keep you interested, but you'll doubtless see them coming. The whole show proceeds so slowly there's plenty of time to ponder how things are going to turn out. One scene took so long I was sorry I hadn't packed sandwiches. Such is the spell still cast by the names De Niro and Pacino, audiences will turn out to see whatever they're in. Next time, if there is one, and the romantic in me still hopes there is, maybe a little less daylight please.