R.I.P.D. (2013)

  This is yet another "bomb" this summer that doesn't really deserve to be labeled that.  Reviews I've read keep saying it's just like another Men in Black.  So what's wrong with that?  MiB was funny, action-packed, and had great performances from its two leads.  How is that not something worth emulating?  Plus, the last good Men in Black movie we had was the third one, which came out a year ago.  Considering that we waited ten years for that, I would think people would be overjoyed there was a similarly styled one out in less than a decade.  It's not Oscar-bait by a long shot, but it's a solid summer movie.  Show it some love, people.

Boston cop Nick (Ryan Reynolds) gets shot by his partner Hayes (Kevin Bacon) after he has a change of heart regarding a stash of gold they had liberated from a crime scene.  Rather than face Judgment, Nick joins the Rest in Peace Department, a collection of all the best dead crime solvers out to corral lost souls.  He is partnered with Roy (Jeff Bridges) and sent back down in time to see his funeral.  He wants to reassure his wife Julia (Stephanie Szostak) but he discovers that he no longer looks like himself to the living.  Instead, he looks like an old Chinese guy (James Hong) and Roy looks like a supermodel (Marisa Miller).  Roy is dead-set against following up on Nick's murder but when it looks like Hayes may be trying to bring about the apocalypse, he becomes amenable to persuasion.

Jeff Bridges borrowed a little too heavily from his True Grit character, but his interaction as his Avatar, the Victoria's Secret Angel, were golden.  Ryan Reynolds has not had a lot of luck with comic book adaptations and that is just a damn shame.  The man is incredibly talented at comedy and action and just seems tailor-made for those kinds of parts.  Mary Louise Parker is just having a banner year, by contrast.  She was adorable in RED 2, and hilarious here as well, as Nick and Roy's acerbic boss Proctor. 

So go on, embrace the summer popcorn flick.  God knows we need at least one of them this year that isn't specifically geared towards children.