I don’t get the hatred for R.I.P.D., a new paranormal action comedy.
Is it a great movie? No. But it’s not bad, either, as nearly every critic listed on Rotten Tomatoes claims. I had a good time watching it.
At the top of the list of what I liked was Jeff Bridges as a dead cop busting human souls that refuse to move on to judgment. Their decay affects everything around them, so the Rest in Peace Department is charged with capturing them and sending them to their eternal punishment. If too many of them amass on Earth, life as we know it will end.
Bridges plays Roycephus Pulsifer, a name he claims was sexy in the 1800s, when he was a law man in the Wild West. “Just call me Roy! Or Cephus,” he gruffly tells Nick, his new partner. Nick says his name sounds like an STD. Bridges clearly had fun with the role. His dialogue is funny, his delivery is funny, his reactions are funny, and by the end of the movie, I wanted to spend more time with the guy.
Played by Ryan Reynolds, Nick is freshly dead. I can’t reveal why, as that would ruin an early surprise, so I’ll just say he has skills R.I.P.D. wants and is spared judgment so he can help Roy arrest “deados.”
Reynolds is saddled with playing the straight cop to Bridges’ Roy, which is not easy to do in a comedy, but he pulls it off and manages to get viewers to pull for his character. Nick is the anchor for viewers in the movie, as his quest to learn why he died and solve the mystery of the pieces of an artifact he keeps finding drive the plot.
I also liked that Roy and Nick both have back stories that give their characters depth, even if that story is played for laughs in Roy’s case. Nick’s background has an element of tragedy, but again, you should discover that on your own. With a running time of 96 minutes, including the end credits, R.I.P.D. is a remarkably concise piece of writing and filmmaking.
Also enjoyable were the jokes, which start early and never let up. “You’re asking too much of that towel,” Nick says in the police department locker room as a chubby pal fresh out of the shower walks by. Later, he makes fun of his partner’s charm bracelet, telling the guy, “My vest keeps me from getting shot; your bracelet keeps you from getting dates.” R.I.P.D. is packed with jokes, physical gags, hilarious reaction shots and simply funny situations.
R.I.P.D. also opens with a slick action scene. I liked the quick, fluid camera movements, the sharp editing and the video game-like urgency of the gun fight. Also cool was watching Nick move through a massive 3D explosion on which the universe had pressed the pause button for Nick, who had just died. Coming at the tail end of the opening scene, it was a real visual treat.
Finally, I liked R.I.P.D.’s quirky sensibilities. I was the only person in the theater who laughed when Roy told Nick to read a deado questions about Asian cuisine from a stack of cards. Apparently, Japanese food causes deados, who look like normal people, to reveal their true physical self. If you’ve seen the voicecomp test scene in Blade Runner, it’s like that, only with a warped sense of humor.
What did I dislike? The computer animation. The deados look fake. Really fake. That took me out of the movie each time one appeared. I also thought the motivation of the villains was shaky. If they pulled off their plan, they’d wreck the world in the process, so what would be the point?
While I can’t speak for the many, many critics who panned R.I.P.D., I can say I had a good time watching it and believe you might, too.
Three stars out of four. Rated PG-13 for violence and language, including sexual references.