20 Most Idiotic Film Twists Of All Time

13. De Niro Was Framed By Pacino - Righteous Kill

Righteous Kill
Universal Pictures

The Twist: Though the movie begins with Turk (Robert De Niro) confessing to being the Poetry Boy killer on video, it turns out at the end that the recording has been coerced by his partner Rooster (Al Pacino), who is the real killer.

Why It's Stupid: It's a lazily manipulative twist, an extremely cheap cop-out that's also rather smug to boot. You can tell the filmmakers felt so smart fielding out this "fiendish" twist, when really it's just a rehash of numerous better similar twists, executed with all the panache of a shockingly generic straight-to-video cop caper.

Plus, it's head-smackingly predictable given how the movie frames itself, and boy, who is the killer most likely going to be if not De Niro? Even stupider is the fact that De Niro and Pacino finally get to have a proper starring movie together and...this...is what they decide on?

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.