Undead that should have just died
R.I.P.D. uninspired, derivative and a big, bloated mess
Somewhere between the sassy idea and the idiotic execution of it, the filmmakers handling
R.I.P.D. screwed up. The result is a big, bloated mess of a movie.
R.I.P.D. stands for Rest In Peace Department. When a Boston cop (Ryan Reynolds) is murdered in the line of duty, he finds himself on the way to Judgment Day. It will not go well.
Just before his death, he conspired with his partner (Kevin Bacon) to steal gold during a drug bust operation. That makes him a dirty cop.
However, instead of ending up on the direct path to Hell, Reynolds is waylaid into a kind of Purgatory — the R.I.P.D. division run by a sardonic bureaucrat (Mary-Louise Parker). She sends him back to Boston in disguise. She teams him up with a crusty undead partner (Jeff Bridges). He happens to be a murdered cowboy lawman from the 19th century. Let the “fun” begin.
Together, while squabbling endlessly, they hunt for monstrosities among the undead. These creatures are not just clotting things up for living citizens, they are threatening the continuing existence of the world. Oh, and Reynolds wants to make good with his widow (Stephanie Szostak) and also to wreak revenge on the scumbag who killed him.
Director Robert Schwentke (best known for the original
Red in 2010) has to wrestle this supernatural sci-fi beast into a workable buddy cop comedy and action picture. That is a lot to ask when the screenplay is this bloody stupid. As a pure movie concept,
R.I.P.D. does have a germ of a great idea to work with (it started with a Dark Horse comic book by Peter M. Lenkov). But the filmmakers seem to shuck off originality and just randomly steal bits and pieces from Ghost, Lethal Weapon, Hellboy and
the Men in Black franchise. All
without taking any of the good stuff that makes those movies so interesting.
Schwentke also struggles to set up the convoluted and senseless rules for the undead cops and their soul-destroying mission. He then mixes his metaphysical metaphors in creating an Old Testament version of the hellfire afterlife. The visuals are uninspired and derivative. The action scenes are poorly orchestrated.
Just as crushing, all the actors are awful, except for Parker (whom Schwentke worked with in Red).
Reynolds is beyond bland. He actually is zombie-like in this movie. Bridges recycles a mutant version of his performance as Rooster Cogburn in the Coen Brothers’ remake of True Grit. With Reynolds and Bridges on different planets, their buddy cop banter is rancid.
Meanwhile, in secondary roles, Bacon feeds off every slimeball he ever played before, while French-born Szostak is reduced to cooing (when Reynolds is alive) and crying (when he dies).
This is all rather tiresome. Genre pictures are not supposed to be this boring.