R.I.P.D

Director: Robert Schwentke (2013)

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Bacon

Find it: IMDB

Men in Black meets Ghostbusters by way of a typical Ryan Reynolds movie. KIA, BCPD officer Nick (Reynolds) is recruited by the RIPD (Rest In Peace Department) to carry on policing from beyond the grave. Tasked with bringing the so-called 'deados' to justice, Nick is teamed with obnoxious cowboy Roy (Bridges) who quickly shows him the ropes. It doesn't take Nick long to get into the swing of things, presumably because he saw Will Smith go through the exact same thing in Men in Black.

On paper, the idea of Jeff Bridges playing a loudmouth cowboy with an ankle fetish and an awesome beard is a great one - the dude abides, after all - but in R.I.P.D, he and his character just come across as extremely grating. It's an odd turn up for the books, to be watching a Ryan Reynolds movie and hating somebody in it who isn't Ryan Reynolds. And yet, that's the case here. The scenes in which Reynolds unloads his frustrations upon Bridge's face are the best in the entire film. 

The rest of it is ruined by an abundance of bad CGI, predictable storytelling and Kevin Bacon not being given nearly enough to do. As big-budget blockbusters go, you could probably do worse (anything with Transformers in the title, for example) but you could do a lot better too. Annoying, unfunny and predictably done, this POS is DOA. FML.