Well if you ever had high hopes for a movie then this would surely be the one. Pairing two acting legends in a crime flick generates a level of hype and expectation that you could never realistically expect to meet. This movie proved that theory and then some.It's not that it was a particularly bad film but such excitement has been generated over the one scene where DeNiro and Pacino met in Michael Mann's 1995 heist flick Heat that their first movie as dual leads would have to be pretty special to give the audience what they wanted.
So the movie pairs up veteran cops, DeNiro & Pacino and pits them in an IAD, serial killer type of investigation against the young bucks of Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguizamo. The plot is pretty standard fare and supported by 50 Cent playing an unnecessary small role as local club owner (he was not convincing as an actor) and a decent performance by Entourage's own Carla Gugino. There is the obligatory twist at the climax of the flick but by this point you are somewhat disengaged in the movie and have spent most of the 101 minutes wondering what kind of movie this could have been with a top drawer director in charge with a better script.
I read in some paper recently that the movie got a one star review which was too harsh. Just watching DeNiro and Pacino share a screen means you have to start from two stars but really this is a 2.5 for me. Ehh, I will be generous, let's add another half just because they are such legends!
Rating: ***
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