This is the screen adaptation of the comic book of the same name by Peter M. Lenkov. If you are have no clue about the comic book, then this is about a department of police officials. The difference between R.I.P.D and any P.D in the world is that the former comprises of dead police men. After their death, they are inducted into R.I.P.D to apprehend the dead people who have escaped judgement and wandering on earth. Normal people cannot distinguish these aimless souls and hence it is up to R.I.P.D to capture them in order to transport these "deado"s to next life.
Did I pique your interest? If the answer to the question is yes, then let me assure you I had the same enthusiasm while reading the premise. Unfortunately, the director Robert Schwentke wastes a good opportunity of making a watchable action movie. If you are not familiar with Robert Schwentke, he is the same person who gave us R.E.D a couple of years. He seems to have a penchant for adapting comic books which has acronyms as the name. So we have R.E.D, R.I.P.D etc. Unlike the previous movie, he doesn't have an ensemble cast. But he is consistent in rendering an interesting premise into a boring movie.
Detective Nick Walker(Ryan Reynolds) is killed by his partner Bobby Hayes(Kevin Bacon) when the former decides to walk away from making easy money by stealing the unexpected gold unearthed as part of a drug bust. In between the journey from earth to afterlife, Nick is grabbed by Mildred Proctor(Mary-Louise Parker) in order to recruit him for R.I.P.D. Nick is also assigned a new partner Roy Pulsipher(Jeff Bridges) who was a US Marshal in the Wild West era.
One thing for sure, Ryan Reynolds needs to spend more time in choosing scripts. None of his comic book adaptation has turned out to be a watchable fare. If you have any doubts, think Green Lantern. What is Jeff Bridges doing in this movie? If you examine his character, it is an extension of Rooster Cogburn played in the Coen Brothers' adaptation of True Grit. But this alone cannot make the movie enjoyable. The odd couple theme of Nick and Roy falls apart because it is a rehash of cliches we have seen many times before.
The interesting part of Nick and Roy is normal living people see them as different people on earth. So Nick appears as an old Chinese man(James Hong) and Roy as a beautiful Russian blonde(Marisa Miller) to normal eyes. This is interesting but the treatment of this angle leaves a lot to be desired thereby taking all the humor that could have been associated with it.
Moreover, this movie is in 3D. Why? I am still asking myself. Stay away from this. This is not even worth sleeping through. I advice to spend your time wisely
Language: English
Genre: Action
Rating: *
