Due to the casting of two powerhouse veterans like Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, there’s a certain underlying expectation that precipitates seeing a movie like “Righteous Kill.” Fans of these fine actors will want to “like” the film far more than is possible, and this is primarily because director Jon Avnet saddles his ensemble with a sluggish and convoluted script by Russell Gewirtz.

Two aging New York City detectives, Turk (DeNiro) and Rooster (Pacino), find themselves investigating the identity of a vigilante gunman who is systematically “cleaning” the streets of pedophiles, rapists and murderers who have “fallen through the cracks” of the justice system.

Because the killer shoots his victims at close range and then leaves a poetic calling card that explains his justification for the murder, the veteran partners decided to look within the police department and even at each other as potential suspects.

What follows is a predictable plot device used frequently in action-thrillers which is meant to make the audience question the moral compass of the primary characters, despite the fact that it is painfully obvious throughout most of the film exactly who is carrying out the reign of vigilantism.

Along with the two “big guns,” the cast includes Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg, 50 Cent and Carla Gugino, as a crime scene investigator with a penchant for rough sex, who is also the DeNiro character’s girlfriend.

The banal dialogue forces Pacino and DeNiro to appear as if they are playing caricatures of themselves from other roles in better films. The few attempts at misplaced humor seem all the more creepy amid the gratuitous violence, which includes an unseen but implied rape scene.

Because “Righteous Kill” glides on clich/d logic, underdeveloped characters and subsequently weak performances, the film simply serves as a device to fill as many theater seats as possible before word gets out that it’s just another cynical exercise in box-office-draw trickery.

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(1 1/2 stars out of 4.)