Thriller. Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson, John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg, Carla Gugino, Brian Dennehy, Melissa Leo. Director: Jon Avnet.

DE NIRO and Pacino. Pacino and De Niro. Two titans of the big screen with three Academy Awards and countless accolades between them. Despite more than 30 years of incendiary performances, frequently on the streets of New York where they both grew up, these acting heavyweights have only appeared face to face once, for a few fleeting minutes in Michael Mann’s celebrated 1995 thriller Heat.

Their previous co-billing in The Godfather Part II, where Pacino portrayed Don Michael Corleone and De Niro bagged the Oscar as the young Vito, unfolded in separate time-frames, precluding any verbal fireworks.

Righteous Kill finally unites the goodfellas, casting them as grizzled cop buddies on the trail of a serial murderer. Alas, Jon Avnet’s psychological thriller, penned by Russell Gewirtz (Inside Man), isn’t big or ballsy enough to warrant its place in cinema history.

There’s scant rapport between the leading men, no meaty one-liners or put-downs, and their characters embark on linear emotional journeys that are an insult to De Niro and Pacino’s formidable talents and our intelligence.

Moreover, screenwriter Gewirtz commits the cardinal sin of blatantly cheating to pull off his final-reel twist.

After 30 years of loyal service, NYPD detectives Turk (De Niro) and Rooster (Pacino) know every nook and cranny of the city’s underworld.

Both are on the brink of retirement, but neither man is in a hurry to hang up the badge for good.

When a suspected child molester escapes conviction and turns up dead with a four-line poem placed on his body, Lieutenant Hingis (Dennehy) asks Turk and Rooster to investigate.

The modus operandi recalls earlier cases, leading the cops to join forces with detectives Perez (Leguizamo) and Riley (Wahlberg).

Crime-scene detective Karen Corelli (Gugino) collects forensic evidence, in between bouts of frantic sex with Turk. As the body and poem count rises, drug dealer Spider (Jackson) provides invaluable clues to the serial killer’s identity.

Righteous Kill opens with a video confessional from the killer then pieces together the fractured narrative in flashback, hoping to explain the culprit’s motives.

When we reach the denouement and see the confessional in context, we realise we have been hoodwinked by a screenwriter and director who never intended to play fair.

De Niro and Pacino go through the motions as the plot unfolds at a pedestrian pace around them, with solid, if forgettable, supporting performances from the others.

Clichés stack up quicker than spent bullet casings until a strangely moving final scene that is too little, too late.