Jack of Harts

The Rest In Peace Department is a collection of all the best cops who ever lived, their mission to maintain the cosmic balance between living and dead souls on planet Earth. They are the best, the brightest, and the most dedicated men and women in the quasi-land between dead and alive, recruited in the moments after their death to continue their mission of protecting creation. And then there’s Detective Sergeant Nick Walker, crooked cop, and most recent member of the “shot in the face” club, given the choice to go on to Judgment on the dubious merits of his Pre-Death actions, or earn some brownie points by serving a term in the R.I.P.D.. He picks option number two real quick.

Too quick, as it happens, but that sets up the rest of the movie, a comedy-action romp through the streets of Boston. It seems there’s a conspiracy to rebuild the Staff of Jericho, a long lost artifact that can bring down the walls between life and death, and pretty much rain destruction down all of Earth. And incidentally end Nick Walker’s service in the R.I.P.D.. It would probably also mess up his hopes of building up enough brownie points to get a homie fist bump when Judgment comes. Assuming that’s still in the cards, of course. Eternal Affairs is understandably NOT AMUSED by these shenanigans, and sends all their best and brightest officers to deal with the situation, RIGHT NOW.

If you can’t guess where that puts Sergeant Nick Walker, then you haven’t watched enough Ryan Reynolds movies. It’s a fun movie to watch, though not with the deepest of storylines out there. It’s serviceable, and I can see how parts of its pedigree were later refined and used in Deadpool. R.I.P.D. is considered a commercial failure, but I found it to be fun and enjoyable, which is honestly about all I want in a movie. So it gets a solid homie fist bump of approval from me.