DIRECTOR: Robert Schwentke
CAST: Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Bacon, Mary Louise-Parker, Stephanie Szostak, James Hong, Marisa Miller, Devin Ratray, Robert Knepper
RUNNING TIME: 96 mins
CERTIFICATE: 12A
BASICALLY…: Nick Walker (Reynolds) is gunned down in the line of duty by his corrupt partner (Bacon), but in the afterlife he is recruited to join a taskforce that purges evil spirits back to where they came from, and is partnered up with an insane cowboy partner Roy Pulsipher (Bridges)…
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NOW FOR THE REVIEW…
When the opening credits are a pain to sit through, spouting obnoxious narration and focusing on a pretty bad piece of CGI “artistry”, you know that the rest of R.I.P.D is going to be a weird, dumb and generally hollow viewing experience.
Let’s take a look at that CGI work throughout the film which the film heavily depends upon, one of its most misguided decisions. R.I.P.D cost in excess of $130 million, which means a lot must have been put in to these visuals. Makes you wonder where it all really went, because this is some of the worst CG animation you will see in a major theatrical release this year. Mostly used on the designs of the evil spirits, named “deados” for some inept reason, they never come across as threatening or intimidating but rather almost comical and cartoonish because of it. Not once during the running time can you believe that they are real creations but rather just products of the computer system. Guys, what’s wrong with make-up artistry? It may cost a little bit more but you’ll at least believe they’re really there because, get this, they ARE really there! It’s an example of everything that’s wrong with the rise of dominant visual effects in Hollywood, and hopefully the filmmakers will learn their mistakes from this.
The way in which the rest of the film is shot is odd as well. Director Robert Schwentke seems to have a fetish for Tarantino-style zoom-ins with the cameras, because he uses it over and over and over again making it instantly stale in the process. Now, for the scenes with the weird realms of the afterlife, they can work to show what a strange, uncomfortable environment it is. But these shots and other strange camera angles are used before we even get to the afterlife, during the police raid that eventually takes Ryan Reynolds’ dull, bland hero type’s life. Schwentke clearly doesn’t have as good a grasp with the material as he may think, given he doesn’t know when to stay still half the time. He’s like a kid playing with his brand-new camcorder, and he hasn’t figured out how it all works yet.
Alongside Reynolds is Mary Louise-Parker as a commanding officer for the R.I.P.D and, we’re saying this right now, this character and the way she is portrayed is disturbing. When we first meet her, she’s meant to deliver the necessary exposition to Reynolds but just her very presence and how she delivers it is rather unnerving. You’re left not caring about what the R.I.P.D stands for but instead what in God’s name is going through her mind? It all comes to a head during her final appearance in the movie, where she and Jeff Bridges (arguably the most fun thing in this movie by a good mile) share a moment after several hints of them having a past affair, and then out of nowhere she starts biting at poor Bridges’ goatee. Just saying that sentence out loud makes you feel bad and embarrassed for both Bridges and Louise-Parker – maybe Bridges a little more – to be given this kind of material, but all it leaves us is with wanting a restraining order against this psychotic character that somehow got a level of authority. No-one can top that level of weirdness in the cast, not even Kevin Bacon who by some miracle embarrasses himself more here than in any of those cinema ads for EE.
Add to all that a generic script, with a mystery where the biggest surprise is that they want the painfully-obvious outcome to be a mystery in the first place. It is also an incredibly dumb script, going beyond stupidity and once again into cartoon territory. A chase scene culminates with a lift flying through the ceiling after one of its weights is shot off which would not be out of place in a Wile E. Coyote short. But when this same script also calls for Jeff Bridges’ goatee to be gnawed at by the woman from Weeds, did you really expect much else?
SO, TO SUM UP…
R.I.P.D is a bad movie by every standard, its unintelligent script, amateurish direction and its horrendous visual effects work lending nothing to a movie that was doomed from the start. However, its very few moments of inspired lunacy make it a slightly more worthwhile experience than some other films of recent…
