There used to be a Marvel Comics series entitled Marvel Team-Up. Each month, Spider-Man would be paired up with another superhero, both prominent and obscure, and they would have an adventure together. (There was also a Marvel series called Marvel Two-in-One, which had The Thing working with another hero, but I always felt that Marvel Team-Up was the more popular of the two.) Despite the fact that some of the issues were interesting and popular, as they featured main Marvel characters such as Wolverine and Ghost Rider, few Marvel Team-Up issues became very valuable. This had to do with the fact that while the characters were good, the stories rarely amounted to much. The film Righteous Kill is very similar. It features to Marvel Team-Up caliber actors, but the story leaves much to be desired.

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino star in Righteous Kill as New York City Police Department detectives Turk and Rooster. They are investigating the murder of a pimp, when Turk is offered cocaine at a nightclub. The pair then take on a second case of trying to bring down the drug dealer, Spider (Curtis Jackson). Meanwhile, another murder, very similar to that of the pimp, occurs. And then another. Turk and Rooster begin to realize that someone is killing criminals, more specifically, criminals who were tried, but not convicted. As they share a common case, Turk and Rooster team up with Detectives Riley (Donnie Wahlberg) and Perez (John Leguizamo) to find the killer. As they put the pieces together and more victims are found, they start to think that the vigilante may be a police officer. Could a killer be amongst their ranks?

Obviously, the big draw of Righteous Kill is that Oscar winners De Niro and Pacino finally get to share the screen for an entire film. Both actors were in The Godfather, Part II, but were never on screen together and they only shared one scene in Heat. But, in Righteous Kill, they are together for practically the entire film. This works, not only because the two are seasoned veterans, but because it truly feels as if there is a bond between them. On-screen chemistry aside, it's rare to see a movie where we truly believe that the two characters have worked together for years, but we get that here. The two share a bond which means that we believe them as hardened policemen, but there is also an underlying emotional connection.

But, despite the fact that De Niro and Pacino are good here, Righteous Kill probably isn't the dream project for which fans have been waiting for years. While Director Jon Avnet tries his best to maintain a slick look and a good pcae for the film, the script by Russell Gewirtz simply doesn't offer enough "oomph!" to support the film's two stars. The story begins as a flashback movie, and then it turns into a mystery, and then it's not a mystery, and then suddenly there's an incredibly cheap twist ending. Once the twist happens, the movie wants us to have a Fight Club-esque reaction and suddenly realize that we were misinterpreting much of what we had been seeing. Instead, the twist is very lame, and ultimately, predictable. Righteous Kill sets up a series of suspects and clues, and we eventually realize that everything was a red herring, and there never was a mystery in the first place. The movie is also further complicated by the Spider subplot. This takes the story into too many directions when it should have stayed with he mystery...or whatever you want to call it.

Righteous Kill engages in a little rough sex on DVD courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is sharp and clear, showing only a minute amount of grain and no defects from the source material. The colors look very good, but the image is a bit dark at times. There is no overt artifacting or haloing, but I did notice that the picture was a tad soft at times. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are quite good, and the movie isn't afraid to highlight what's happening off-screen. The surround sound effects are good as well, most notably during the night-club scenes. These same scenes offer music which really impacts the bass effects.