The Bottom Line

Righteous Kill

Directed by: Jon Avnet
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, 50 Cent, Carla Gugino, John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg
Rated: R for violence, pervasive language, some sexuality and brief drug use.
Parental Notes: This is a pretty solid R rating. Not for youngsters, though teens and mature preteens may be fine.

The idea of Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino in a movie where they are on screen together for more than ten minutes is a wonderful one. Unfortunately, the team behind "Righteous Kill" appears to have thought that it was wonderful enough to carry a mediocre cop movie. It is not, unless you are such a huge fan of the two actors that seeing them interacting is enough to make you overlook the movie's failure to be wonderful in any other way.

The story is straightforward: two veteran homicide detectives (DeNiro and Pacino) investigate a series of killings -- someone is murdering bad guys who have fallen through the cracks of the justice systems. They're clearly the work of the same person: the killer keeps leaving little poems at the scenes. As the film progresses, we get clues that the killer is one of the pair, or maybe that it's someone close to them.

It's all fairly standard cop thriller stuff, and the film makes no real effort to be anything more. It's as though the filmmakers put all their effort into getting Pacino and DeNiro on board and didn't bother with the rest, like a student who focuses on one class to the exclusion of the others, earning one A+ but all Cs otherwise.

Pacino is laid back, witty, and a lot of fun to watch. DeNiro is a blast as well, in full on rage mode a lot of the time. Together, they are delightful -- their characters have been working together for decades, and the two veteran actors bring that across as easily as you'd expect. These roles aren't challenging, and both Pacino and DeNiro saunter through them easily. There's a fair bit of scenery chewing, especially as the film lumbers to its conclusion, but would you expect anything less from these two?

The supporting cast are all fairly solid, but not transcendental. John Leguizamo and Donnie Wahlberg go through their paces as a pair of detectives from another precinct working the same case, who are thoroughly suspicious of DeNiro's character. Carla Gugino has a smallish role and while her portrayal brings strength and a hint of interesting layers to the part, she winds up being mostly a pawn in the storyline -- in the manner of many strong female characters who have the misfortune to be in gritty crime dramas.

DeNiro and Pacino deserved a better vehicle for their first time spending most of the film on screen together, something that would actually make them flex their acting chops and do more than saunter from point A to point B. There's very little in the film to surprise anybody who's seen more than one police thriller, and it's disappointing to see two so talented actors in a film that weights them down with its mediocrity.

Ultimately, whether you'll enjoy "Righteous Kill" or not depends on how excited you are to see DeNiro and Pacino together on screen for the better part of two hours. If you're just looking to see them act together, don't miss this opportunity. But if you are hoping for another film of, say, the caliber of "Heat," don't waste your time or money.

Burn After Reading

Written and Directed by: Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring: Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, Elizabeth Marvel
Rated: R for pervasive language, some sexual content and violence.

"Burn After Reading" is a true-to-form Coen Brothers movie. It's packed with inspired lunacy, bizarre characters, brief but potent bursts of violence, and a plot so convoluted even the characters aren't sure what's going on.

The film is ostensibly a spy movie comedy sort of thing, but it takes quite a while to get rolling and is ultimately focused on the large central group of characters. There are two Washington, D.C. couples: Harry and Sandy Pfarrer (George Clooney and Elizabeth Marvel) and Osbourne and Katie Cox (John Malkovich and Tilda Swinton). Harry is with the Treasury Department, and a serious womanizer. He's cheating on his wife with Katie. Meanwhile, he cruises internet dating sites to pick up women for one-night stands. Osbourne has a bit of a drinking problem and a temper, and winds up quitting his job as a CIA analyst in a huff when he's reassigned with a lower clearance. Katie is considering divorcing Osbourne, and this is the last straw. She copies a bunch of his files -- mostly financial stuff, but also a memoir he's working on -- onto a CD and goes to her lawyer.

Unfortunately, the CD winds up in the hands of a couple of employees at the aptly-named Hardbodies gym. Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) is fit but not getting any younger, and she's determined to get a series of plastic surgeries to keep up appearances. Unfortunately, the insurance she has through Hardbodies won't cover it. When the CD turns up and her friend and coworker Chad (Brad Pitt) points out that it's obviously super-secret CIA information, the two of them decide to see if they can get a reward from the CD's owner. A computer geek friend finds the originating system information and they call Osbourne -- who thinks they're blackmailing him, and becomes enraged. Even so, Linda is set on getting the money, and Chad is too stupid to do anything but go along in the face of her relentless determination.

Things get even more complicated from here, with Harry and Linda meeting through the dating site and hitting it off, Linda and Chad trying to sell the data to the Russians, and other assorted bits of mayhem. The CIA finds out about the disc and the department head on whose desk the information ends up (J.K. Simmons, "Juno") on is thoroughly confused, instructing his underlings to keep following everyone and "come back when it makes sense."

The actors are all perfectly cast, particularly Pitt. He plays Chad with a relentless optimism and fuzzy-headedness that is infectiously hilarious. McDormand captures the desperation of a woman in an industry focused on appearance who is starting to lose her youth and cannot see that she's still beautiful. Malkovich is as delightful as ever, and Clooney has turned his charm up so far that Harry is both slimy and pathetic. Swinton's Katie is cold and angry, and one can't help wondering what exactly she sees in Harry. The secondary characters are all deftly drawn in their limited screentime, from Linda's smitten but rather helpless manager Ted (Richard Jenkins, "Six Feet Under") to Sandy, who turns out to be more complicated than we at first suspected.

"Burn After Reading" does contain some startling violence -- think of the woodchipper in "Fargo," or the toe in "The Big Lebowski" -- but it's neither overdone nor gratuitous. Ultimately, if you're a Coen Brothers fan, this movie will be right up your alley. If you're not fond of their zany humor or the dark streak that filters into even their lightest films, you should probably stay away.

Babylon A.D.

Directed by: Mathieu Kassovitz
Starring: Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Melanie Thierry
Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, language, and some sexuality.
Parental Notes: This is a fairly standard PG-13 film, likely inappropriate for young children but fine for preteens and older.

Some movies are good: well-written, full of complex and developing characters, plotted in a way that makes sense. Some movies are bad: gloriously over-the-top, entertaining things packed with action and delightfully nonsensical. Both are enjoyable, depending on your taste. Then there are the movies that fall somewhere in the middle -- poorly written but not delightfully so; confusing, disengaging things that leave you staring at the credits muttering "what? But wait, wasn't... huh?"

"Babylon A.D." is one of those. It has some elements of a good movie and some elements of a bad movie, but ultimately it is a confusing, jumbled mess that fails to entertain.

The film starts out well. After a voiceover musing on the nature of life in a dystopic future, we meet the owner of the voice: Toorop (Vin Diesel). After a little day-in-the-life action, Toorop is captured and made an offer he can't refuse by Gorsky (a well-disguised Gerard Depardieu). His task: escort a young woman to America. The young woman, Aurora (Melanie Thierry), turns out to have an overprotective mother figure, Sister Rebecca (Michelle Yeoh), and to have some serious issues. She may also have the ability to see the future.

Diesel and Yeoh are convincing in their action-oriented roles, and both can handle the more serious dialog without sounding like utter fools. Thierry doesn't have much to do beyond look frightened and upset, but she's fine with that. There are even some good action sequences scattered through the first half or so of the film, as Toorop protects Aurora from various dangers on their way toward America.

Unfortunately, then the movie starts trying to have something beyond the straightforward action plot. We meet the High Priestess of the Noelites (Charlotte Rampling), who is apparently Aurora's mother and is plotting to use the girl to put her religion on the map. We meet doctor Darquandier (Lambert Wilson), who also has some strange revelations about Aurora. There are multiple showdown sequences, which are rather incoherently shot. By the time the end of the film comes around, more questions have been raised than answered.

Sure, the special effects are nice, but so many confusing things are going on during those pretty effects sequences that it's hard to appreciate them. I like a good, complex world where some things are left unexplained as much as the next filmgoer, but when lots of things that look like they're being set up to be important are left hanging it starts to get tiresome. Apparently the film distribution company, 20th Century Fox, took the movie from the director's control and made significant changes, which would help explain the confusing nature of the film.

Unfortunately, the reasons behind the state of the film do nothing to save "Babylon A.D." from being what it is: a confusing, jumbled mess which utterly fails even to be bad in an entertaining way.