July 23, 2013 by Paul Curtin
I never read the comics or had ever heard of R.I.P.D. until seeing the debut trailer with its questionable CGI, but I was still for whatever reason interested in the goofy concept. What can I say? Show me a crazy idea about dead cops hunting giant dead freaks with chain guns, and Iโm willing to buy in for the sake of it looking like an over-the-top fun experience.
As you can gather from the trailers, Nick (Ryan Reynolds) dies and has the option to join a supernatural law-enforcement division known as the Rest In Peace Department โ a decision he makes instantly. Heโs teamed up with Roy, the clichรฉ older solo gunslinger (Jeff Bridges doing a silly version of his True Grit character) who lost the only partner he ever trusted and doesnโt want help from the rook. The two are assigned to find and bust โdeadosโ, renegade souls that have evaded the afterlife and are still living disguised as people on Earth. Of course, thereโs some bigger plot uncovered, and itโs up to the two dead lawmen to save the living world.
R.I.P.D. had potential; hell, weโve pretty much already seen the concept successfully done before with aliens in Men in Black. But despite its $130 million budget, solid action director, and cast of A-list actors, R.I.P.D. as a whole just isn’t very good. The typical end of days story seems rushed. The characters are undeveloped and hardly have any chemistry with one another. The special effects aren’t very special. The 3D isn’t noticeable. And almost all the best parts in the movie are given away by the trailer.
Yet, with how bad R.I.P.D. sounds, I still canโt help but admit that I somewhat enjoyed it. Itโs nowhere near as good as the first Men in Black, or even the second or thirdโฆ but the movie still has a tiny bit of charm and a good share of solid action sequences and funny moments that made it worth watching โ maybe not worth watching in theaters, but worth a view whether on Netflix or Redbox or when it’s being played to death on various basic cable channels.
While there isnโt any real chemistry between Reynolds and Daniels, and Kevin Bacon plays the most generic โIโm a bad guy who does bad things because Iโm badโ role ever, the acting isnโt bad per se, and the team of Reynolds and Daniels still manages to work. And though itโs primarily an action film, it’s that comedy that helps carry the film from scene to scene and keep it alive.
The twist in R.I.P.D. (other than swapping out aliens for deados) is that Nick and Roy donโt look the same to people on Earth as they did before they died. Itโs another gag you’ll see in the trailer, and if you didnโt find it funny watching the trailer, then you wonโt enjoy the film repeatedly using it for cheap laughs. Reynolds looks like an old Chinese guy (James Hong), and Bridges a smoking hot blonde bombshell (Marisa Miller).
Hong and Miller are only shown a handful of times throughout the movie and only have a couple lines, but almost every scene shown with them is hysterical and had me laughing. Itโs a gag that is repeatedly used throughout the entire movie to the point that it begins to get old, yet still manages to get a few extra laughs even when almost completely played out towards the end. Again, if you didnโt find it funny when watching the trailer, youโre not going to like R.I.P.D.
The Verdict
R.I.P.D. isnโt a bad movie, itโs just a shame that with so much going for it that it couldnโt live up to its full potential. The movie as a whole is a mess and even at its best a few times only matches the Men in Black franchise that it so desperately is trying to be and never surpasses it in any way. Itโs not clear exactly what went wrong during its production to have so many elements that just donโt mix well together, but the sum of its parts still manages to make for a few exciting moments, a few big laughs, and an average movie at best. R.I.P.D. gets 2.5 out of 5 stars (Okay).