Unironically Back from the Dead

I don't think anyone is going to defend the 2013 R.I.P.D.. A lidless turd of a film, one that couldn't be saved by stars Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges, the film barely only $78 Mil against a budget of at least $130 Mil. It played like a tired M.I.B. retread, just without the wit, charm, or fun of that better film series. It was bad.

The film was, frankly, bad enough that despite my need to re-review every film previous covered on older versions of this blog, I have refused to go back and watch it again. There are bad movies and then there are movies so bad even I can't watch them. That's R.I.P.D., a horrible, mistake of a film that everyone promptly forgot about the second it slinked its way out of theaters with its tail between its undead legs. And good riddance.

Except, apparently Universal Pictures remembered they owned the license rights to make films based on the R.I.P.D. brand. Maybe they honestly felt they could make a good film based on these characters and this world. Maybe they just wanted to secure the rights to this comic series a little while longer. Whatever the reasoning behind the decision, we have a prequel to the original film out now, nine years later after that previous flick crashed and burned at the Box Office. Will anyone care?

Well, if they come into this film fresh, not having seen the original (or maybe seeing this one first since it is a prequel), they might just find themselves having a moderately good time. It's a low budget film, to be sure, with TV quality actors and low-grade special effects. But then, that's hardly setting it far apart from the previous film, all things considered. And maybe, because there were no expectations for it, this film was able to find it's own little niche. It's not good, but it's also not R.I.P.D. bad, and that's not nothing.

Set in 1876, R.I.P.D 2: Rise of the Damned (which I'm just going to write as RIPD 2 from now on) follows Roy Pulsipher (Jeffrey Donovan), Sheriff of a small town out West. His daughter Charlotte (Tilly Keeper) comes to town, with her fiance Angus (Richard Fleeshman), ready to get married despite the misgivings of her father. Before they can work out their little family issues, though, Roy is shot during a raid of the good outlaws the Samuels brothers, and sent on the head office up above.

There he's given a chance to come back to Earth as an undead law enforcement officer for the R.I.P.D. His job: to catch the deados from Hell and send them back where they belong. Paired up with partner Jeanne (Penelope Mitchell), the two are set on a quest to follow a real nasty deado who, apparently, is in league with the Samuels boys. Worse, they've been capturing people all over the state, including poor Angus, to use them in their nefarious plans. If they deados get their way, a gate will open straight to hell, and if that happens not even the R.I.P.D. will be able to stop that flood of demons.

If you have seen the original RIPD, you'll probably think that taking Roy from that film and granting him his own movie would be a terrible idea. As played by Bridges, Roy was just an obnoxious blowhard, someone you wanted to see die, over and over again. Of all of the characters from that film that could have gotten their own adventure, Roy was the one character I would have singled out as the worst choice. He wasn't deserving of our time and effort.

Thankfully, this film pretty much ignores everything about Roy from the previous movie. A prequel essentially in name only, RIPD 2 says, "hey, we have a cowboy, and we have some demons, so lets mash them together." It wisely ignores everything that sucked about the previous film, instead putting together a low grade, simple little Western that just so happens to feature undead cops chasing demons. Frankly, there's absolutely no reason to watch the previous film before coming into this movie, and you're probably better of ignoring it entirely.

On it's own there's enough to like about RIPD 2 to make it a breezy little watch if you have nothing better to do some afternoon. Donovan has a blast playing the drawling Sheriff, and his partner in crime, Mitchell, does a solid job fleshing out her otherwise underwritten character. The film is at its best when the two of them are riding around, bantering while, occasionally, shooting people. It works in a low stakes kind of way, letting you just have fun with these two characters.

The plot really isn't anything to speak of. It's yet another retread of the basic M.I.B. formula. Bad guy comes to Earth, has a plan to launch an invasion, and out two agents are the only ones that have any chance of stopping him. Seriously, you could swap undead characters for aliens and you have yet another M.I.B. flick. But where the previous movie felt tired and awful, this film has the sense to at least give us a new setting and time period. Thus, while it feels like an M.I.B. movie, it doesn't look or act as much like one. That's a relief.

It's pace isn't fast, it's effects aren't great, and everyone's acting, outside of the two leads, is pretty bad. This is very much a low-budget, direct-to-video flick, and you have to know that going in. It's decently made for the money, and you can tell people tried. It doesn't do anything to redeem the franchise, but frankly I don't think it was intended to either. The crew was given the task of making an RIPD prequel, and they did the best they could despite that.

This film won't win anyone over, and it's certainly not going to get any awards. It's middle of the road, video streaming fare, and that's fine. RIPD 2 is dumb, and silly, but watchable, and that still makes it better than the previous movie.