'R.I.P.D.' Reviews: Scathing Notices From Critics

R.I.P.D. stars Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges as dead law enforcement officers (Reynolds’ character Nick was in the Boston PD, while Bridges’ Roy was a Sheriff in the Old West) who come back to the land of the living to exterminate an army of zombies with the Rest In Peace Department.

Undercover in avatars as an elderly Asian man and a busty blond woman, respectively, Nick and Roy must put aside their differences to save the world from a sinister plot to unleash the murderous undead. Top film critics not only aren’t buying it, they’d like to purge the whole movie-viewing experience from their minds.

"For a movie that so strenuously rips off Ghostbusters and Men in Black, R.I.P.D. manages to come up with fresh new ways of being absolutely terrible. Then they go rampaging around town destroying stuff like the aliens in Men in Black, only this time you’ll wish you were the one who could have someone flash one of those gadgets in front of your face to make you forget everything you’ve just seen." – Kyle Smith, The New York Post

"Perhaps there was a clever germ of an idea here, but the five credited writers didn't develop characters, scenarios or rules in this sci-fi world well enough to engage the audience.… Based on a comic book, R.I.P.D. reinforces the point that not every graphic novel should be adapted to film." – Claudia Puig, USA Today

"A zombie movie in all but name, this jocular and cheesy adaptation by Clash of the Titans screenwriters Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi of Peter M. Lenkov's 2001 Dark Horse comic quartet might have been better conceived as the beginning of a lower-budget, more modestly aimed franchise along the lines of the Hellboy entries. But as a major undertaking with clear sequel ambitions, there's just not enough new and exciting here to cut it; when the brief 96-minute running time is one of its two or three only virtues, you know you're in trouble." – Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

"Even if it wasn't already based on a graphic novel, R.I.P.D. would not strike one as an entirely original concept. One can imagine a pitch meeting in which an eager young creative type enthusiastically exclaims, "It's Men in Black, only the men are DEAD, and instead of aliens they track down, um, BAD dead people!" And, yeah, the idea is just that simple and just that silly. But the execution is pretty lively, irreverent, visually engaging, and every now and then almost actually witty." – Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies

R.I.P.D., rated PG-13, is currently in wide release. Kevin Bacon and Mary-Louis Parker also star.

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