Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Bacon
Boston cop Nick Walker (Reynolds) is about to confess his part in swiping gold from a recent bust when he's shot dead by his partner, Bobby Hayes (Bacon). Whilst awaiting judgement in the afterlife, Nick is assigned to the Rest In Peace Department (or R.I.P.D.) paired up with Old West lawman, Royseifus "Roy" Pulcipher (Bridges) and given the task of apprehending bad souls that have gone back to Earth.
Watching R.I.P.D. does beg the question; why exactly was this film made? A comic-book-styled mess of a movie, R.I.P.D. is too adult for kids and too childish for (at least, mature) adults. Whilst the premise does bring some comparisons with Ghostbusters (1984), really the film takes much of its cues from Men In Black (1997) and the level of imitation is pretty obvious, whilst the plot bizarrely morphs towards The Avengers (Avengers Assemble) (2012) towards the end. The script is dull with an astounding number of plot-holes and errors (why would you entrust a cop suspected of corruption on the case of capturing bad guys?) and few laugh-worthy gags while the rather impressive cast (Kevin Bacon, Jeff Bridges, James Hong, Mary-Louise Parker) don't seem to live up to potential, although Parker has her moments, whilst Jeff Bridges' southern accent is, at times, impenetrable. Visually, the film isn't particularly impressive and the 3D coupled with the constant camera movement is a little bit of an eyesore. Robert Schwentke has his strengths as a film-maker as can be seen with RED (2010) (this prior collaboration with Mary-Louise Parker may explain why she gives a relatively strong performance) and as derivative as R.I.P.D. is, there's a nugget of fun in the material. Unfortunately, that was never really used to its best potential and so the film comes off as rather lacklustre.
Next time, Hugh Jackman plays a determined father trying to solve a case of child abduction in Prisoners.
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