Righteous Kill

Robert DeNiro and AL Pacino are New York cops in Righteous Kill (Overture Films)

Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro are two of my favorite actors. They both appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II (1974) and it was tantalizing  because each one's scenes brushed up against the other although the two actors never shared screen time. (DeNiro played the young Vito Corleone in flashbacks and Pacino his adult son Michael.) So close and yet so far! Then came Michael Mann's crime thriller Heat (1995) in which Pacino and DeNiro played cop and thief. But again it was mostly a tease because the two only acted together in one scene. So the potential fireworks from having these two acting dynamos perform together still felt untapped. Now Righteous Kill (opening September 12 throughout San Diego) comes along and promises to have them onscreen together for most of the film. Could this finally be the movie I've been waiting for? Building my hopes is that writer Russell Gewirtz penned the twisty Inside Man, but raising a red flag is director Jon Avnet, the man behind the disastrous 88 Minutes.

You can also listen to our discussion of Righteous Kill from the KPBS Film Club of the Air.

88 Minutes

Al Pacino has 88 Minutes to live. (Columbia)

It's a sad day when Zombie Strippers boasts a more credible plot than Al Pacino's latest movie. Okay I'm exaggerating... but only slightly. Zombie Strippers may be absurd but it knows it. Al Pacino's latest outing, 88 Minutes (opening April 18 throughout San Diego), is wildly improbable yet everyone insists on playing it straight. The result is 108 minutes that I wish I could have back - and Pacino may be wishing the same thing.

FilmOut

A Four Letter Word opens this year's FilmOut.

FilmOut San Diego celebrates its tenth anniversary this month, expanding for the first time to a full week of films. The festival was created as a showcase for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender works. The event kicks off April 11 at Landmark's Ken Cinema with the San Diego premiere of A Four Letter Word.

Untraceable

Diane Lane as FBI agent Jennifer Marsh in Untraceable (Screen Gems)

Diane Lane first grabbed attention as a little girl sharing the screen with legendary veteran Laurence Olivier in 1979's A Little Romance. Since then she has matured into a fine actress gaining praise for work in Unfaithful, Under the Tuscan Sun and Hollywoodland. Now she takes on the role of FBI agent Jennifer Marsh in the film Untraceable (opening January 25 throughout San Diego). Imagine Hostel with a CSI twist and done for the Oxygen network crowd, and you'll have an idea of what Untraceable is like.

Grindhouse

Grindhouse (Miramax)

At last summer's Comic-Con, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez brought the house down with a ten-minute teaser of their joint double feature, Grindhouse (opening April 6 throughout San Diego). The double bill of Rodriguez' Planet Terror and Tarantino's Death Proof finally arrives in theaters after a year of intense build up.

Quentin Tarantino, sat on the Grindhouse panel at the Comic-Con last July and told the 6400 people that "I'm actually proud that I make movies that adults respond to the way kids respond to." And that's what Grindhouse does -- it delivers a film that fans will line up to see, watch repeatedly on DVD, and scramble to collect all the toys. They'll also memorize favorite lines and compete to prove they know more trivia or get more of the in-jokes and references than anyone else. And that's the way a kid enjoys a movie -- wholeheartedly and with obsessive passion.

Haute Tension/High Tension

Alexandre Aja's Haute Tension

The French send over their bloody entry into the slasher genre with Haute Tension/High Tension (opening June 10 throughout San Diego), a sexy woman in peril film with a twist. The recent Filmout: San Diego's Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, served up Hellbent, which they promoted as the first gay slasher film, a label the filmmaker seemed to not only welcome but which he embraced for promotional reasons. Alexandre Aja's Haute Tension/High Tension doesn't seek a gay label but Aja definitely tints his horror tale with some lesbian overtones as a pair of French babes is threatened by a knife-wielding maniac out in remote countryside.