RYAN REYNOLDS & JEFF BRIDGES IN R.I.P.D.

year: 2013 rating: **1/2

While it really does resemble MEN IN BLACK in both style and structure, especially within the busy and bizarre offices of The Rest in Peace Department… home base for dead cops to find and arrest the undead lurking amongst the city masses… R.I.P.D. is more of a cross between GHOST and GHOSTBUSTERS...

We begin with two crooked detectives, one played by Ryan Reynolds as Nick and Kevin Bacon as Hayes – but Nick is good deep down and pays the price for having doubts about stealing gold at a drug raid. Upon being killed right after a cool looking shootout, our anti hero descends upward into… not exactly heaven, hell, or purgatory but the Department where little of the film actually takes place.

Much of the action occurs on the city streets as Nick endures his stubborn partner, a veteran “lawman” originally from the Wild West named Roy. Jeff Bridges fits the part so well he forgot he's not Rooster Cogburn in TRUE GRIT. With a slurred alum-tongued speech pattern and stock world-weary gruffness, Bridges makes a good Oscar to his Felix-partner Reynolds, who, surprisingly enough, can also play rough n’ tumble pretty well. After all, Nick has more to fight for – his wife’s being visited by his nefarious ex-partner... here’s where GHOST comes in...  and eventually the stolen gold connects to an otherworld plot where, like GHOSTBUSTERS, the undead could paint the town all sorts of bad colors. Some of the funniest parts show Nick and Roy the way humans see them: Roy’s a sexy blonde chick and Nick’s an old Chinese man. At times you’ll want more of the avatars present since Bridges and Reynolds, while likable enough, eventually play second-fiddle to the cartoonish special effects: whenever the dead show themselves in true form they bloat into monstrous Hulk-like beasts.

Thankfully the movie's so short the flaws don’t really matter, and there’s a pretty decent balance of action and comedy, yet the humor doesn’t rely on one-liners as much as Roy's perpetual reluctance to accept Nick – and vice versa. But the best thing about R.I.P.D. is the direction, flowing like an edgy crime flick on its own right with a jazzy/funky soundtrack and a fun, gritty undertone reminiscent of GET SHORTY and OUT OF SIGHT.