R.I.P.D.

ACTION/ADVENTURE, COMEDY

Rest in Peace Department

7.0 out of 10 | Rental

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Rated: PG-13 Violence, sci-fi/fantasy action, some sensuality, and language including sex reference
Release Date: July 17, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes

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Director: Robert Schwentke
Writers: Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi, David Dobkin, Based on the Dark Horse comic by Peter M. Lenkov
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, Stephanie Szostak, James Hong, Marisa Miller, Mike O'Malley

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SYNOPSIS: A recently slain cop joins a team of undead police officers working for the Rest in Peace Department and tries to find the man who murdered him.

REVIEW: Director Robert Schwentke, known for RED and The Time Traveler's Wife, takes the helm for a movie that is a combination of the action of RED and the fantasy of The Time Traveler's Wife to create the comic-to-film adaptation of Peter M. Lenkov written Dark Horse comic series. Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (Clash of the Titans) work with David Dobkins (Jack the Giant Slayer) to see if an afterlife buddy cop movie works on the big screen.

Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds, Safe House) is a Boston police detective, partnered up six years with Hayes (Kevin Bacon, X-Men: First Class). When Nick is killed during a drug warehouse raid, his soul is sent to a strange bureaucratic purgatory called the R.I.P.D. (the Rest in Peace Department) with the choice laid out for him by a liaison named Proctor (Mary-Louise Parker, RED 2) of going to Hell or serving 100 years as a officer in the bureau bringing Dead-Os to justice and keeping them from overrunning the mortal plane. Nick is partnered up with an old bristled and grizzled lawman named Roy (Jeff Bridges, True Grit). When his first day on the job uncovers strange gold fragments and a suspension for both both Roy and him, they take it upon themselves to investigate and uncover a larger other-worldly conspiracy.

Based on the Dark Horse comic series of the same name written by Peter M. Lenkov, R.I.P.D. returns to a genre similar to Men in Black. Instead of fighting aliens, these men not in black pack iron to combat the dregs spawning from Hell and Earth. The evil and nefarious Dead-Os have a very similar look to Rick Baker's alien makeups from the MIB franchise, just with more teeth, slothing flesh, bursting boils, and craggy skin. While the Dead-Os are interesting, and probably true to the characters drawn in the comics, they do not seem to be anything special.

The special effects are a bit sloppy, too. The blend of SFX and practical sound stage work is not seamless, taking me out of my suspended disbelief of the story several times with blurry edges. When Dead-Os run up the sides of buildings defying the laws of gravity, the effects should be cool but end up being bland. I will say I have a specific issue on this topic and am more apt to complain about it. I usually overlook this problem if the flick uses the FX consistently throughout, but R.I.P.D. doesn't seem to get the job done.

R.I.P.D. is, at its heart, a buddy cop genre movie. Netherworlds aside, Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges have to make sure that they sell the character chemistry in addition to the story. Bridges' Roy is fun to watch, while Reynolds delivers his typical aw-chucks, but action-oriented performance. As partners their differences are polar, but not as enduring as Murphy and Nolte, Smith and Jones, or the recently humorous and successful duo of Bullock and McCarthy. Nick and Roy's avatars, the way they are seen by other mere mortals, are actually more fun to watch. Nick is an old Asian man (James Hong) and Roy is a gorgeous blond model (Marisa Miller). The avatars are so polar opposite that I wish I was able to spend more time with them onscreen.

R.I.P.D. could have been something special. Jonah Hex could have been something special. The best part of that movie was the fight scene in the cemetery. For R.I.P.D., the snark and action could have been surrounded by a more serious tone, and could have resulted in a flick ore worth while.

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True Grit

Does It Have What It Takes?

[Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Hailee Steinfeld, Barry Pepper]

image from clothesonfilm.com

RANT: My housemate wanted me out of the kitchen and out of the house while she made perogies for Christmas Day. I was happy to oblige, but I had a choice to make - go to the malls to spend more money on Christmas gifts or go to the movies. I bet you can't guess what choice I made!

SYNOPSIS: A rough and tough U.S Marshal is enlisted and hired by a head-strong 14 year old woman in order to track down the man who murdered her father.

Can a remake of a Golden Globe and Academy Award winning western ever live up to the original? Can Jeff Bridges live up to the legendary western leading actor who is John Wayne? Screenwriting and directing Coen brothers, Ethan and Joel, bring True Grit back to the screen after a 40 year absence. The Coen brothers are no strangers to period pieces, slices of Americana, or westerns. With Fargo, No Country for Old Men, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Ladykillers under their belts, the Coen brothers have all the right skills.

As with any great modern western, a heavy part of the appeal is the geography. Rugged riders on powerful horse trekking across sweeping plains, snow topped mountain peaks, babbling brooks and raging rivers, camping out under a sky that is all but non-existent in today's urban sprawl. Once the Coens get us past the dust and grit of the start-up western towns, all that is left is the majesty that is the untamed north and west territories. For a U.S. Marshall and a Texas Ranger, roughing in the great outdoors would seem like child's play. But for a 14 year old girl, practically a woman, driven to find her father's killer, can she survive the wilderness?

Jeff Bridges brings Rueben "Rooster" Cogburn back to the screen, a role made famous by John Wayne. Alternately a stumbling drunkard, a vicious lawman, and a regaler of events past, Bridges emotes more with his one free eye than many others say with their whole body. Hailee Steinfeld expertly plays the headstrong young Mattie Ross, the girl looking to put her father's affairs in order, as well as track down his father's killer. Mattie's education demonstrates just how ignorant some adults were in those days (for a few laughs), but her single-mindedness forces her into the Territories with Cogburn despite having little actual experience in the wild (except for a coon hunt). Steinfeld's Ross is both fearless and fearful. Although she knows she needs someone to find and capture Tom Chaney, she eventually realizes that there is more to it than she expected. Matt Damon plays Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, the cocky lawman, with ease. Josh Brolin as killer Tom Chaney is at once brutal, scared and diminished. Lastly, Barry Pepper is barely recognisable as the somewhat noble criminal Lucky Ned Pepper.

Although the True Grit remake is a well-crafted and well-acted western, I personally enjoy the 3:10 to Yuma remake and Unforgiven better. Unforgiven is my personal favorite modern western but True Grit does do the genre proud.

Worth: Matinee or Netflix

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Tron: Legacy (3D)

Digital Revenge

[Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, Michael Sheen]

image from geeky-gadgets.com

RANT: I reviewed the comments that I have received for previous reviews. One of the comments stated that I explained 127 Hours, but failed to really review it until the last paragraph. So, to the writer who remains anonymous, I will try to do better!

SYNOPSIS: After his father has been missing for several years, Sam Flynn is accidentally digitized into the Grid - a computer world his father recreated. Once there, both elder and younger Flynn must fight against Clu who has been programmed to create an Utopia.

Twenty-eight years ago, Disney released Tron, a movie that received lukewarm reception and box office. Although visually immersed and nominated for two Academy Awards (Sound, Costume), no one would have imagined that a sequel would or should be put into play. But Disney, a studio that decided that a amusement park ride about pirates would make a good film, sometimes knows better than the rest of us.

When Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges, disappears, his son Sam, played by Garrett Hedlund, is left as the major stakeholder of software giant Encom. When Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner), a partner of Kevin Flynn, receives a page from Flynn's shutdown video arcade, Sam stumbles across his father's hidden office. Once at his father's desk, he is accidentally digitized and sent into the same computer world that his father disappeared into many years ago.

Parts Blade Runner, The Matrix, Hackers, Star Wars, Gladiator, and of course the original Tron,Tron: Legacy is a visually stunning science fiction adventure. The memory disks that the programs wear on their back are almost as cool as a light saber, and more functional than a Swiss army knife - especially during the gladiator battles. The light cycles, other vehicles on and off the Grid, and the Tron world are beautifully designed and executed. Clu, the command program Kevin Flynn creates to design and build an utopia society in his absence, is rendered perfectly in Jeff Bridges' own young image. My only complaint is that regardless of how far the CGI technology has come to create a young version of Bridges, as soon as the construct Clu opens his mouth to speak, you can see that the design studios still have a ways to go before perfection is achieved.

And perfection is what the program Clu is trying to achieve. Coded to create an utopia as Kevin Flynn saw it, Clu did as he was tasked. But in the pursuit of excellence, Utopian society looks something more akin to tyrannical oppression of anything other than conformity. What lengths will one go to in order to reach their goals?

The story is computer world cool, creating a world that is 600hz hi-def plasma perfect. All of the best elements of the original are brought well into the new millennium. If you liked the original, you will like this one as well. The plot is a little deeper, the spectacle a little bigger. The question will be whether the sequel will hold up to scrutiny better than the original.

Worth: Matinee or BluRay

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