Normally, when I see that Jeff Bridges is going to be in a movie, I am excited. Unfortunately, I can’t really muster any enthusiasm for the movie “R.IP.D.” Even a heavyweight like Bridges can’t seem to save this one. Ryan Reynolds is some nice eye candy to look at and Kevin Bacon plays a real scumbag character (which I find that he does that in a lot of his movies).
The movie starts off on present day, with Reynolds playing a Boston police detective named Nick Walker. He is partnered with Bacon’s Bobby Hayes. You just know that this partnership is not going to end well; the two of them take some gold (that obviously didn’t belong to them) while out on duty. Not long after, while the two police detectives are on a raid, Hayes decides that Walker is too much of a liability and kills him, to prevent the stolen gold being returned.
Walker dies and is seen in the afterlife – he becomes a part of the Rest in Peace Department (“RIPD”) – an agency of dead law enforcement officers who investigate and bring to justice the renegade ghosts that still wander the earth. These ghosts are known as “deadoes,” as they are monsters and need to be dealt with.
Walker is partnered up with Roy Pulsipher, who was a former United States Marshall and a soldier in the American Civil War. The two are introduced and assigned as a team at Walker’s funeral, of all places. Walker finds out that RIPD law enforcement officers are given disguises to conceal their forms. Walker, seeing his widow, tries in vain to communicate with her but cannot. Walker goes along with Pulsipher to arrest the suspect, Stan Nawlicki (who is eventually taken down by Pulsipher). There are some small pieces of gold that were found in Nawlicki’s possession (identical to the same pieces that Walker had previously stolen).
There’s some chaos and some under handed shady deals that have gone on and that Walker and Pulsipher can see. They find out that Hayes was connected (of course). During some heated exchanges, Pulsipher ends up revealing his true identity to the city’s living, which is a big no-no. Both Pulsipher and Walker get into trouble and are suspended.
Hayes is also a ‘deadoe’ and of course there’s some more action, the bad guys get what’s coming to them, the good guys catch the bad men and the gold is returned. The gold has something to do with an important machine known as ‘the Staff of Jericho’ which has the power to reverse the path of souls from the present lifetime to the afterlife. Of course, there’s going to be the cliché fight at the end, where good faces evil and Walker’s widow is safe from harm. And order is restored to the world.
To be quite honest, I got up and left my family room a few times while this movie was on, because it was that exciting. I feel like this isn’t my best review, but to be honest, I have to be really intrigued and piqued by a movie or documentary, in order to give it a robust review. Honestly, folks, save your time for other movies that have a stronger plot, better developed characters and a trailer that gets you hooked. Pass this one over.
So was it bad for you too or was it wacked-way-out-there kind of fun? Tell us about it below.
