Looking for an Audience

Despite shaky CGI, numerous reality-straining leaps in logic, and complete lack of tonal consistency, R.I.P.D. actually has a much bigger problem to overcome if it hopes to find an audience... even in this summer’s stagnant swamp of underwhelming offerings.

The most daunting task faced by this graphic novel adaptation involves attracting viewers for its strange brew of procedural crime drama, sci-fi action, and buddy cop comedy. It’s not quite sure which it wants to be, and as a result, never fully manages its own identifiable persona. Instead, it speaks in faint whispers of Ghost, Men in Black, 48 Hours, and Ghostbusters -- but is never as good as any of those movies. That’s not to say there’s no fun to be had however. And that’s the interesting thing about R.I.P.D. Despite its numerous flaws, blemishes, and all the things it gets wrong, the film still manages to entertain.

Born from the pages of Peter M. Lenkov’s Dark Horse comics graphic novel of the same name, the movie version of R.I.P.D. tells the story of two dead cops dispatched by the otherworldly Rest in Peace Department to protect and serve the living from an increasingly demonic force of creatures refusing to move peacefully into the afterlife.

Veteran Wild West sheriff Roy Pulsifer (Jeff Bridges), killed in a 19th century gunfight on the dusty streets of Arizona, is joined by recently deceased Boston cop Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds), who was accidentally killed during a routine police raid.

Together, their mission is to arrest and bring to justice a special brand of outlaw called “deados”- - essentially hell-bound souls who refuse to walk towards the light and cross over to the other side -- trying to escape final judgment by hiding among the living on Earth. Once exposed by R.I.P.D. officers as deados (we won’t reveal their weakness here), these diabolical creatures “pop” back into their true nature -- via digital imagery -- which is usually an exaggerated manifestation of its crime against humanity. There’s ample light-hearted fun to be had from watching these creatures transform and subsequently wreak their own brand of havoc on the streets of Boston, but circa 2000 CGI always reminds us we’re sitting in a movie theater eating popcorn. Too bad.

With support from Kevin Bacon as Nick’s Boston Police Department partner before Nick dies, and Mary-Louise Parker as the Fresca-sipping, go-go booted bureau chief named Proctor, the R.I.P.D hopes to correct any ethereal shifts and ensure the natural order between the living and the dead stays in harmonious check. But once Roy and Nick uncover an evil deado plan that could topple the delicate balance between the planes, the two cops quickly realize they are the only ones who can keep the universe from total collapse. But that’s just one of the logical inconsistencies popping up now and again. Despite an R.I.P.D. force of hundreds, these are the only two officers assigned to quell the mayhem destroying downtown Boston?

The love story between Nick and his wife also fails to convince as Reynolds and Stephanie Szostak (as Nick’s wife, Julia) fail to work up a believable chemistry despite numerous Ghost wannabe moments. Some questionable off-screen dialogue that seems to have been added after the fact fail to do he film any favors either.

Despite all the things they get wrong, those behind the film -- including director Robert Schwentke -- still manage to keep us slightly disarmed and receptive to the film’s unpredictable charm. The caustic friction between Bridges’ mustachioed Roy and Reynolds’ dapper Nick drives most of the comedy. And before all is said and done, Bridges’ loopy humor eventually wears off on us despite his -- and the film’s - occasional bleed into cartoonish silliness. The movie’s main conceit -- that a strange world of rotting beasts, with the “soul stank” of a thousand corpses, walks undetected amongst the living -- works despite its similarities to Men in Black.

R.I.P.D. feels like its makers sensed problems early on, and in trying to salvage things, left indelible scars on their product. Then again, not sure any of this matters, as the film’s mixed-bag offerings may never find an audience anyway -- other than the graphic novel’s fans.

(Released by Universal Pictures and rated “PG-13” for violence, sci-fi fantasy action, some sensuality, and language including sex references.)

Review also posted at www.franksreelreviews.com.