R.I.P.D

R.I.P.D – When Nick Walker is killed on duty, he finds himself transported to the afterlife where he is recruited into the ‘R.I.P.D’ (Rest In Peace Department) in order to capture ‘deados’; the dead who have managed to remain on Earth. However, his new unsympathetic partner, Roy, makes his transition into the afterlife very difficult but when they find that the deados have a plan which could destroy the Earth, the pair must work together to stop them before it’s too late.

R.I.P.D (2013) – Director: Robert Schwentke

Rating: 12

Running Length: 96 mins

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Bacon

Genre: Action, Comedy

REVIEW: ‘R.I.P.D’

‘R.I.P.D’ is based on the comic book ‘Rest In Peace Department’ by Peter M Lenkov and follows Nick and Roy as they attempt to erase the dead and stop them from remaining on Earth. Fair comparisons have been drawn between this movie, ‘Men In Black’ and ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘R.I.P.D’ certainly doesn’t bring anything new to the genre. It is, however, a lot of fun. Having the typical straight man (Reynolds) / funny man (Bridges) banter as the main focus of the movie could have become irritating but thankfully it remains light-hearted throughout.

The main trouble with ‘R.I.P.D’ is possibly the off-putting trailer which exaggerated Bridges’ dialogue to slapstick levels, although said dialogue is actually more subdued in the movie. That said, it is also often difficult to understand what Bridges is saying due to his accent and when he does most of the talking, this does get a little tedious. What it does well is the relationship between Nick and his wife, Julia, who are very close but after his death, Julia has to deal with the possibility that Nick wasn’t the man she knew. Nick is a very sympathetic character but his struggle with his situation doesn’t become too heavy and his role in the comedy duo manages to remain light and fun.

It’s a little unfair to say that you will only enjoy this film if you have low expectations but ‘R.I.P.D’ is a relatively shallow, albeit enjoyable popcorn movie which simply aims to entertain the audience and, for the most part, manages to pull this off.

CONTENT: IS ‘R.I.P.D’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

In an early scene, Nick is seen lying in bed, talking to his wife, Julia. She walks into the room, wearing only her underwear and a t-shirt and jumps on top of Nick. They are very affectionate with each other but their intimacy does not turn sexual.

The violence in the movie generally isn’t too strong. It mostly consists of people being shot and thrown backwards, a small amount of blood is sometimes seen in the form of a small red spurt but these moments are not lingered upon and should not cause distress. One violent moment, which is partially  seen in the trailers shows Nick falling from a height, hitting several  objects on the way down before finally landing heavily on his neck/shoulders. This fall is caused by Nick being shot several times and therefore he is likely to be dead by the time he reaches the ground.

The first ‘deado’ that Nick sees turns from a normal looking man into a grotesque monster. He grows in size and his jaw stretches so that his mouth is wide and hangs down near his chest. He also grows second hands which push through his existing hands, this looks quite disturbing but there is no blood so this does not become gory. Also, during a fight with Nick and Roy, this deado’s arm is ripped off. While the bones are seen to break under the skin, again there is no blood or suffering from the character and it is used within a comedy scene so kids are more likely to find this funny rather than disturbing.

There are a lot of sexual references within the movie which mainly come from Roy’s dialogue. When a young woman who is wearing hot pants walks near them, Roy leers over her (although she is unaware of this) but Roy then tells Nick that he finds ankles sexy and this is all he was looking at.

As seen in the trailers, when on Earth, Nick and Roy take on different forms. Nick’s is an old Chinese man and Roy’s is a very attractive blonde woman who wears a very revealing dress. It is low-cut which shows a lot of cleavage, is short and very tight around the behind. Whenever Roy is seen in this form, men leer and ogle over him. One man approaches Roy and offers him a job as a model, Roy becomes angry and tells the man to respect him or he’ll ‘castrate (him) like a three-year old steer’.

Roy has been dead for a long time and has a very unusual, old-fashioned name. When he tells Nick his full name, Nick tells him that ‘it sounds like an STD’. When following a man to Julia’s house, Roy asks Nick whether this man has been sleeping with her. He then asks whether Nick had a pact with someone to get rid of his porn stash when he died.

Roy tells Nick ‘In my day I bought love by the hour’ and that one of the coyotes that ate his remains ‘made love to (his) skull’. Nick tells him that he ‘hopes it got both eyes’. One character tells another that they have ‘magnificent breasts’ and there is one mention of ‘lap dances’. Roy calls a large, phallic shaped object a ‘golden pecker’.

As well as the sexual references, there is an excessive amount of moderate cursing and blasphemy. One strong curse word is used although it is not clearly said and one character says ‘What the …’ and forms an ‘f’ with his mouth. There are two instances of a middle finger being held up and there are also a few moderate sexual curse words.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘R.I.P.D’ FOR KIDS?

‘R.I.P.D’ is an action packed movie with a light-hearted thread running through it. While a lot of the humour is family friendly, the sexual references and cursing is likely to make this movie unsuitable for a lot of children. We feel that, depending on your views of these two aspects, ‘R.I.P.D’ should be appropriate for most children aged 10 and over.

• Violence: 3/5 (while there is a lot of action, the violence is not over the top or gory. Some of the deados are grotesque and one’s head splits open in front of another character but as this is his natural form, there is no blood and he does not suffer. One character smashes a huge rock against another’s head but this does not do this character any harm)
• Emotional Distress: 2/5 (Nick often struggles to come to terms with his death and misses Julia. Julia’s grief is kept subdued so does not become too upsetting)
• Fear Factor: 1/5
• Sexual Content: 3/5 (men leering over attractive women, women wearing revealing clothing and sexual references throughout the dialogue. One man who is only wearing a towel around his waist allows it to drop in front of two male colleagues (nothing explicit is seen). They express disgust at this and one says ‘I will shoot that thing off’)           
• Bad Language: 4/5
• Dialogue: 1/5
• Other notes: Deals with themes of death, working with someone you don’t like, partnership, the afterlife and fighting the forces of evil.

Words by Laura Record

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