R.I.P.D.

R.I.P.D. is a 2013 American 3D supernatural comedy film directed by Robert Schwentke, based on the comic book Rest in Peace Department by Peter M. Lenkov and published by Dark Horse Entertainment. The film stars Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker and Stephanie Szostak. It cost $130 million but has proven to be a box office flop.

Boston Police Department Detectives Nick Walker and Bobby Hayes stole a chest full of gold found during a drug bust, and Nick buries his share of the gold in his backyard, intending to use it to create a better life for himself and his wife, Julia. However, he regrets his decision and informs Hayes he intends to return the gold. Later, during a raid on a warehouse, Nick and Hayes get into a shootout with criminals, and Hayes kills Nick to prevent him from returning the gold, framing one of the criminals for the murder.

While ascending through a tunnel in the sky to the afterlife, Nick is pulled into the office of Mildred Proctor, director of the Boston division of the Rest In Peace Department (R.I.P.D.), an agency that recruits deceased police officers to patrol the afterlife and capture “Deados”, spirits that failed to cross over and return to Earth as monstrous ghosts. Nick agrees to join the R.I.P.D. after Proctor explains that it would stave off a potentially negative final judgment for at least a century, and meets his new partner, Roy Pulsipher, an ex-U.S. Marshal who lived in the 1800s…

Wikipedia | IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Official site

“For a movie that so strenuously rips off Ghostbusters and Men in Black, R.I.P.D. manages to come up with fresh new ways of being absolutely terrible. The plot manages to be fully predictable and freakishly bonkers at the same time, seemingly born of the same kind of brainstorming-on-L.S.D. session that must have given us Howard the Duck.” Kyle Smith, New York Post

“But R.I.P.D. has virtues in its brevity and absolute outlandishness. While lots of summer movies seem to think more is more, or a longer running time means a better movie, R.I.P.D.is blissfully brief. And like Men in Black, its world is ripe with wild creatures and bonkers possibilities for adventure — though the plot that has them chasing a priceless relic and the city-destroying battle at the end are less-welcome summer action movie cliches. While Bridges’ apparent ad-libs could have used a bit more editing, he’s a wonderful source of energy and humor” Kristy Puchko, Cinema Blend

“R.I.P.D. is full of so much outrageous slapstick and over-the-top violence that even Wile E. Coyote might find it a little silly. Most of the folks we see can’t be killed, and so we see them get smashed by cars, run over by buses, thwapped by cinder blocks, flattened by construction equipment, bonked with metal signs and repeatedly hammered by slabs of cement.” Plugged In

Buy R.I.P.D. on Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy + UltraViolet or Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy + UltraViolet from Amazon.com

“This spends little time on exposition and doesn’t go in for any false pathos; compared with most recent comic-book movies, this is lean, unpretentious filmmaking–and to my taste, a lot more fun for it.” Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader

“A bloated blockbuster that squanders a promising premise in favour of soulless set-pieces and ejaculatory explosions of CGI.” Ben Rawson-Jones, Digital Spy

Images courtesy of The Lebanese Cinema Movie Guide