R.I.P.D. (2013)

[baumer]

Discuss

[Deep Wang]

I was hoping that maybe this one would surprise.  Maybe it could be a better MIB than MIB2.

 

I was really wrong.

 

It's sooooooo bad.

[Jack Nevada]

I was hoping that maybe this one would surprise. Maybe it could be a better MIB than MIB2.I was really wrong.It's sooooooo bad.

Better/worse than TLR?

[Deep Wang]

Better/worse than TLR?

 

It's better if only because it's almost an hour shorter.

[shayhiri]

What a joke (of a "review").

 

If it's better than TLR, that it's better than most things.

 

For the record, I hated MiB2 and especially 3.

[grim22]

From the RIPD thread:

 

Quick thoughts on the movie:

 

- Very very very rushed, every scene exists to serve the next scene. There is no such thing as logical plot development. If there is a movie cliche you can think of - you will see it in this movie

- Jeff Bridges sounds like he has 2 jawbreakers in his mouth all the time. Ryan Reynolds can't emote to save his life. Kevin Bacon looks like he is having a lot of fun (he must have had it in his contract that they couldn't use him to promote the movie or something, he has a big role)

- The ending fight scene makes you wonder whether RIPD is the most incompetent police department ever

- The movie made me realize that "The Neuralyzer" was the best plothole fixer in history - this movie desperately needed something like that

- Every single laugh in the movie comes from the "Chinese Guy" or "The Hot Girl"

- The special effects are not exactly great, in fact in some places they look really rushed

-

Boston is freaking DESTROYED in the final fight, and I don't mean one building or anything, literally half of Boston is blown up and god knows how many people killed. The next scene takes place a day after and everything is fine - they could have easily explained it as "Someone up there fixed it" but they didn't, so it sticks out.

 

This will start playing on TBS or something pretty soon. MiB did it better 17 years ago.

[efialtes76]

From the RIPD thread:

 

Quick thoughts on the movie:

 

- Very very very rushed, every scene exists to serve the next scene. There is no such thing as logical plot development. If there is a movie cliche you can think of - you will see it in this movie

- Jeff Bridges sounds like he has 2 jawbreakers in his mouth all the time. Ryan Reynolds can't emote to save his life. Kevin Bacon looks like he is having a lot of fun (he must have had it in his contract that they couldn't use him to promote the movie or something, he has a big role)

- The ending fight scene makes you wonder whether RIPD is the most incompetent police department ever

- The movie made me realize that "The Neuralyzer" was the best plothole fixer in history - this movie desperately needed something like that

- Every single laugh in the movie comes from the "Chinese Guy" or "The Hot Girl"

- The special effects are not exactly great, in fact in some places they look really rushed

-

Boston is freaking DESTROYED in the final fight, and I don't mean one building or anything, literally half of Boston is blown up and god knows how many people killed. The next scene takes place a day after and everything is fine - they could have easily explained it as "Someone up there fixed it" but they didn't, so it sticks out.

 

This will start playing on TBS or something pretty soon. MiB did it better 17 years ago.

and who fixed Metropolis ?

[Vanilla]

Not good, but could have been way worse IMO. 4/10

[grim22]

and who fixed Metropolis ?

 

I don't normally notice that stuff, but everyone kept going on and on and on about how Superman destroyed Metropolis (despite most of the damage happening before the Zod fight thanks to the World Engine) that it was impossible to miss the destruction in this movie.

[grim22]

It's better if only because it's almost an hour shorter.

 

I won't say it is better or worse than TLR. Both are bad in their own unique ways.

[Sam]

Is Shay the one voted A?

[shayhiri]

Don't be ridiculous. And I haven't even seen it yet (won't be released here till autumn).

 

I'm the one who voted B, obviously.

[Sam]

Don't be ridiculous. And I haven't even seen it yet (won't be released here till autumn).I'm the one who voted B, obviously.

My mistake. Sorry Shay

[Deep Wang]

I won't say it is better or worse than TLR. Both are bad in their own unique ways.

 

Yes, but when choosing between a movie that is 2:22 versus one that is less than 1:30, I'll choose the 1:30 every single time.

[Michael Gary Scott]

Lone Ranger has one of the best scenes in movies this year so I will choose that every time.

[Deep Wang]

Lone Ranger has one of the best scenes in movies this year so I will choose that every time.

 

I'm afraid to ask what it is.

[FilmBuff]

Not a horrible movie, but also not a good one either. The leads had shit chemistry. The whole premised RIPD off Mib. 6/10

[baumer]

RIPD is one of the most incompetent films I have ever seen.  Everyone here knows I love RR.  But if I could get in touch with him somehow I'd ask him WTF he was thinking when he accepted this role?  

 

There is one great thing about the movie and that's the opening 10 minutes. After Reynolds dies, it never recovers.  In the opening five minutes, we discover that Kevin Bacon is in this.  That would have been nice of the producers to tell us he was in the film.  But I guess they figured an Oscar winner mumbling like every caricature of a cowboy character ever made and a tall, handsome Canadian boy with abs would be able to sell the film by themselves.  And if they didn't think the cast needed to be showcased, then they must have felt like the MIB tones would be enough to sell it. And if they didn't think that, then must have assumed that the chick from RED, RED2 and FRIED GREEN TOMATOES would get people into the theater because she is the only other actor featured in the trailers.  Yea, that must be it.  Let's drop 250 million dollars on a MIB rip off and then make sure everyone knows that the coked out mom from The Client is in this...yep, that will sell it.

 

The plot is that there is a department of dead cops who keep the EARTH safe from bad guys.  These bad guys are called...wait for it....DEADOS, pronounced just like Cheerios.  These deados are people that were on their way to be judged after they died and they escaped.  This department has been around at least for 100 years as Bridges' character was killed at the turn of the century.  My first question is if these guys are on their way to be judged and this RIPD department is run and authorized by God, why not just strike these fuckers down with a lightning bolt or something?  Why the need for a bunch of dead cops to run around and police that dead that got away in the first place?  Also, there are phones in the police department in RIPD.  Again, this is a divine place.  Why the fuck do they need phones for communication?  Should't they past hard lines and wires to communicate while they are in the after life?  Whoever wrote this didn't think a few things through properly.  Having phones in the afterlife is like using a typewriter in 2013.  No one uses them because they aren't needed.  

 

Then Bridges' character (you've seen trailers) sounds like a cowboy with marbles in his mouth.  This performance is equivalent to Halle Berry doing Catwoman after Monster's Ball or Roberto Benini doing whatever straight to DVD film he did after Life is Beautiful.  It's horrible and it makes no sense.  

 

Ryan Reynolds is the only character in the film that is decent, well Bacon is too but the problem here is that there are stretches in the film where RR is required to say nothing and just look confused.  He must have been channeling what the audience was feeling because he conveys it beautifully.  

 

Then Kevin Bacon is revealed to be a deado as well...big fucking shock.  Now deados are supposed to give off a stench, but Bridges heard of a story that says there might be some kind of article that they wear that prevents the stench.  Bacon has some St. Christopher medal his mom gave him, that is his horcrux or something.  So when he is finally told to take it off, he does and because of this a house blows up.  Yep, makes total sense.

 

Then you have the running gag of Bridges looking like a hot blond.  Of course EVERY SINGLE guy in the film tries to hit on the hot blond. It's like in the entire city of Boston, there is one hot blond.  The city of Boston must be about the size of some village in Alabama or something because they all look at her like they have never seen a woman before.  It's pretty embarrassing.  

 

Reynolds does his sarcastic schtick here and there and here and there you get a chuckle.  Then another asinine line is uttered by Bridges or by Bacon or by the chick from WEEDS and you groan all over again.  The script sounds like it was written by someone who watched MIB 1, 2 and 3 and then sat down and wrote the film in about 15 minutes, then they gave it to their dad who works at Universal and they said "fuck it, we don't need this 250 million dollars. We made a pile from Jaws and Back to the Future and so on, let's just sink whatever is left over into this film."  And they did. The film also has 9 producers.  9.  That can't be a good thing.

 

RIPD makes no sense.  It's not funny, it's not charming, there is no chemistry between any of the actors and when Ryan Reynolds looks confused in every scene, that is not acting.  That is genuine confusion as he is asking himself how the hell he got talked into doing this piece of shit.

 

.5/10  I liked the first ten minutes and Bacon was good some of the time. 

Edited July 21, 2013 by baumer

[CJohn]

 

This is based on a comic by Dark Horse so things like phones and other stuff are probably in there so they had to use them.

 

I now can't wait to see this when it opens here. Jeff Bridges always looked ridiculous in the trailers, and he is playing the same character again in Seventh Son, by the looks of the trailer. Shame this is another big bomb for RR. It is even more sad that he is apparently the best thing about this. Just like he was the best thing about Green Lantern.

Edited July 21, 2013 by CJohn

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

I did see Kevin Bacon on the talk shows recently and I wondered why he was there since it's summer and The Following would be in reruns. When I saw him on Leno, he talked a lot about Kyra Sedgwick cutting her finger recently and everyone slamming him for tweeting photos of her from the hospital. So he was sort of was promoting this, but I wonder why the umpteen ads with the Macklemore! song didn't throw his name out there.