RIPd (2013): Movie Review

Lots of critics keep comparing this with Men in Black – Bollocks!  It’s nothing like, direction, acting, story – all different.  This is a supernatural action comedy. Seriously, I’m pretty sure it’s not meant to be taken seriously.

Roy Pulsifer (Jeff Bridges, an old-style law dude) works for the R.I.P.D., a supernatural police force charged with finding monstrous spirits that are disguised as ordinary people but are actually trying to avoid their final judgement by hiding amongst the living.

Nick Walker is a recently deceased police officer that begrudgingly partners up with the older, slightly wiser Jeff Bridges, Roy. When he and his new partner, Nick (Ryan Reynolds), uncover a plot that could end all life, they must discover a way to restore the cosmic balance or else watch the tunnel to the afterlife start sending angry souls back to the world of the living.

I actually thought that this was a lot of fun, I didn’t get all worked up when some of the plot didn’t flow properly – on the whole it was an easy watching supernatural yarn with a couple of very popular actors at the top of their professions.  I recommend it wholeheartedly!

Steven Boone at Rogerbert.com gave this a pretty poor rating: 
“Robert Schwentke’s “R.I.P.D.”, which wants to be the new “Men in Black”—a sleek pop special effects comedy—has awful, awful timing. The only accurate timepieces in this adaptation of Peter M. Lenkov’s comic are Jeff Bridges and Mary Louise Parker, who play dead cops working in the afterlife version of a police station. They have chops worthy of a Howard Hawksscrewball comedy, but they’re trying to give color and snap to dialogue Hawks wouldn’t have been caught dead directing.”
Other Critic reviews
Confusing and uninspired rather than completely inept, it’s still likely to be swiftly struck from the résumés of all involved. Full review

Olly Richards
Empire
Men in Black meets The Sixth Sense as a mumbling Jeff Bridges shows us what the Dude might have looked like if he were dead. Full review
Paul Asay
Plugged In
This movie is a waste of time; you’ve already seen it done before, and much better. Full review

Jeffrey M. Anderson
Common Sense Media
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