Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds) is a police officer. He is killed by his partner Bobby Hayes (Kevin Bacon). Instead of face "judgement" and properly entering the afterlife, he is recruited by the Rest in Peace Department, an agency of undead police officers. Nick is paired up with the cowboy Roy Pulsipher (Jeff Bridges) to hunt Deados, rogue undead that escape to the human world, because they cause corruption and decay.
Lets look at the good. The effects are good. The Deados have creative designs. The action scenes are decent.
Lets look at the bad. The premise is a complete copy of G vs E (except there is a cowboy instead a baxploitation-style action hero and the Deados replace the Faustians). I know this may be a problem with the comic, but "Deados" sounds like they wanted to use "Deadites", but couldn't. The villain's plan relies heavily on magical artifacts (such as the Staff of Jericho). However, these artifacts are given little to no explanation. The rules of this universe are poorly defined and played for comedy at best. There is a subplot about Nick attempting to talk to his wife, but it goes nowhere. How the R.I.P.D. keeps the existence of itself and Deados a secret is never explained.
What did I think overall? While don't think it deserves the 11% it got on Rotten Tomatoes, it still wasn't that good. This film could have been improved if they better defined the rules of this universe and set up the various plot devices in advance. It give it a 2 out of 5.
