Most people respect the badge. Everybody respects the gun.

Academy Award winners Robert De Niro (Raging Bull) and Al Pacino (Scent Of A Woman) star as a pair of veteran New York City detectives on the trail of a vigilante serial killer in the adrenaline-fuelled psychological thriller RIGHTEOUS KILL, directed by John Avnet (Red Corner) and written by Russell Gewirtz (Inside Man).

After 30 years as partners in the pressure-cooker environment of the NYPD, highly decorated detectives David Fisk and Thomas Cowan should be ready for retirement. Before they hang up their badges, they are called in to investigate the murder of a notorious pimp, which appears to have ties to a case they solved years before.

Like the original murder, the victim is a suspected criminal whose body is found accompanied by a four line poem, justifying the killing. When additional crimes take place, it becomes clear the detectives are looking for a serial killer, one who targets criminals that have fallen through the cracks of the judicial system. His mission is to do what the cops can?t do on their own ? take the culprits off the streets for good. The similarities between the recent killings and their earlier case raise a nagging question ? did they put the wrong man behind bars?