The first trailer for supernatural cop movie R.I.P.D. has dropped, and you have the right to pass judgment on this unexpected blend of Men in Black and Left 4 Dead. Ryan Reynolds is his usual straight guy yanked along with the crazy plan and snarking about it every step of the way. Jeff Bridges has basically resurrected his True Grit character Rooster Cogburn. Cheesy or brilliant? Your call.
The visuals are really fun, always a good thing when you’re looking at a comic book adaptation. Director Robert Schwentke brings a lot of the absurdity from his movie Red to the story of Nick Walker (Reynolds), a slain cop who gets recruited into the Rest In Peace Department. He may be dead, but there are other undead baddies who aren’t going as gently into that good night. Kevin Bacon plays the villain, though sadly we don’t glimpse any of him in this first trailer.
There’s literally a scene where the doors to the R.I.P.D. open and it’s like we’ve time traveled back to 1997, to that great scene in Men in Black when Agent Jay discovers the entire bureaucratic operation pulsing underneath New York City. Except that this all takes place above the city, and Tommy Lee Jones isn’t the one showing our rookie the ropes.
That job goes to Roy Pulsipher (Bridges), a cowboy incarnate who’s prone to snapping off one-liners with his bullets and riding his new partner like a mechanical bull through a fifty-story drop. Yeah, he’s crazy. But this dynamic could just work. For some reason my mind keeps flipping over to Cowboys & Aliens and what a disappointment that was. But that was because the movie didn’t deliver on what was expected. Here, R.I.P.D. lays out exactly what it will be—and it could be a hell of a lot of fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X07xNrVd7DU
R.I.P.D. comes to theaters July 19, 2013.
Natalie Zutter is a playwright, foodie, and pop culture blogger. Her writing has appeared on BlackBook, Ology, Bookish, and Crushable, where she discusses celebrity culture alongside internet memes (or vice versa). Follow her on Twitter.
