Am I Wrong About R.I.P.D.?

by Joe

We went and saw R.I.P.D. the other night and loved it. The movie was strange, but not over the top. It was hilarious, but all the jokes had a point. The plot was fairly simple, and I think that worked to its benefit. I'm sick of big budget blockbusters using convoluted plots to try and make the movies sophisticated (see: Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3, Oceans 12). From my perspective R.I.P.D. did not do that. Like Pacific Rim they knew what kind of movie they wanted to make. They knew the kind of audience they wanted to see it and they catered it to them. Yet, it is getting destroyed from the critics. As of now, it has a 10% on Rottentomatoes.com.

Am I wrong about this movie? Was Jeff Bridges not downright hilarious? I've read some of the tidbit reviews on the RT website, and not once was I bored or annoyed. The sentimental scenes between Ryan Reynolds (as a Chinese man) and his wife were touching and effective. Or so I thought. I mean, I feel like one of the Americans who loves all of Adam Sandler's new movies. Is this who I am, or are all the critics looking too far into a movie that is in the same category as Men in Black?

Can someone help me out here?

Cool Trailer!: R.I.P.D

First, take a look at the trailer:

We can all agree that this looks exactly like Men in Black. Even if it's based on different source material (that I haven't read, so I'm not sure if that's the specific novel the movie is taking from), the movie looks just like the creature feature with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. But everyone liked Men in Black because it was new and different and fun!


Now, a big difference between MiB and R.I.P.D. is that the comedic force is coming primarily the mentor instead of the apprentice. I think this small change will be the key to a much funnier action/creature feature. On top of that, Bridges is basically just playing Rooster Cogburn from True Grit. He's an old cowboy and he's teaching the new guy the ropes in the most hilarious ways possible. Instead of getting hip jokes from a young guy, we're getting these ridiculous pieces of advice from a crazy old man.

Also: I realize it's a lazy joke, but I really loved that Bridges is a smoking hot girl and Reynolds is an old Asian man. It killed me.

What do you guys think?