R.I.P. Off

Judging from its anemic box office take, you didn't see last year's R.I.P.D. But as it turns out, if you've seen Men in Black, then you pretty much have seen R.I.P.D.

It's no secret that Hollywood studios are constantly trying to bottle the success of their rivals with similarly themed films. But it does seem a bit odd to me for a movie to be this close to an earlier film, yet be so far behind the times (this coming more than a year after the third Men in Black film). R.I.P.D. is the story of a cop suddenly pulled into a world he never knew existed, capturing dead rogues who are stirring up trouble on Earth. (The afterlife substitutes for aliens, though there are hardly any changes, cosmetically.)

Taking on the Tommy Lee Jones role is Jeff Bridges. While Bridges' Roy cuts loose a bit more than the dry Agent K of Men in Black, he's still a prickly stick-in-the-mud forced to train a new rookie he doesn't really like. He revels in the new guy's greenness and failures, shows no reactions to the weirdness around him, and tosses off curt observations on (after)life. The Will Smith role is filled by Ryan Reynolds. His headstrong Nick thinks he knows better than the veteran he's been saddled with, has a chip on his shoulder a mile wide, and mugs for the audience when weird stuff he could never have imagined happens.

Of course, Men in Black was hardly the first film to serve up this kind of buddy cop pairing. But R.I.P.D. is more than willing to steal other cliches as well. In just an hour and a half, you get the "former ally revealed as the ultimate villain" trope, the "disobedient cops kicked off the case" trope, the "villain who gets captured on purpose as part of his plan" trope. R.I.P.D. doesn't feel written so much as manufactured.

But depending on your love of the cast members, it might not be a total loss for you. Jeff Bridges is playing a caricature of a drawling Old West outlaw here, but it is a fun caricature. Ryan Reynolds once again excels in his apparent lot in Hollywood, being very likeable in a drab movie. Kevin Bacon continues his recent trend of playing the villain, and is clearly having a ball twirling his virtual mustache more broadly than ever before. And Mary-Louise Parker manages a few laughs with her deadpan delivery.

Still, I don't think a few scattered laughs really justifies sitting through this wholly uninspired movie. Any one of the actors, even the apparently cursed Ryan Reynolds, has better films in their histories. R.I.P.D. gets at best a D+.