‘R.I.P.D.’ Review: Not as Bad as the Buzz, But Still Loud and Clunky

“R.I.P.D.” isn’t nearly as bad as its near-deafening advance
buzz indicated — though, really, what movie could be? — but that doesn’t mean
the laughs and gasps are satisfyingly abundant in this loud and clunky sci-fi
fantasy action-comedy. 

As expensive and useless as something you’d buy in a
duty-free store, it appears to be the work of filmmakers who saw “Men in Black” at an impressionable age, slapped themselves on their foreheads, and exclaimed:
“Hey! We can do that!” Unfortunately, they can’t — though not for any lack of
trying.

Based on a graphic novel — the same sort of source material
that, not coincidentally, also inspired MiB — “R.I.P.D.” imagines a secret
organization of undead law-enforcers charged with controlling (and, in extreme
cases, destroying) human-disguised demons who are said to haunt the entire
planet, but appear to congregate primarily in Boston.

Ryan Reynolds stars as Nick Walker, a Beantown police
detective who shuffles off this mortal coil after being fatally shot by his
corrupt partner during the chaos of a drug raid, and then gets a shot at
redemption (or, failing that, rejuvenation) when he’s enlisted by an outfit
known as the Rest In Peace Department (R.I.P.D.). He spends most of the movie
behaving as someone intent on living down a terrible mistake — like Green
Lantern, perhaps? — but his humorlessness is, strangely enough, more
ingratiating than not.

Read the rest of this review here.