Released about a decade late in its attempt to jump on the Men in Black bandwagon from the late ‘90s, R.I.P.D. was a poor attempt at duplicating that high-concept buddy film about a young gun and wisened cowboy that was previously perfected by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in 1997. Like Men in Black, Reynolds and Bridges were an oil and water partnership set in a CGI-heavy world of comedic monsters—albeit ghosts and demons now as opposed to aliens and giant bugs, a la MiB. Critics, and more importantly audiences, didn’t bite. Despite costing $130 million to produce (and that’s sans marketing), R.I.P.D. only grossed a meager $78 million. That’s $78 million worldwide in the same year that Iron Man 3 cleared a billion dollars and Man of Steel was considered a disappointment by earning “only” $668 million. The failure of R.I.P.D. was so monumental that many overeager and snarky film journalists claimed it was the death knell in Reynolds’ hopes to play Deadpool in a solo movie… which might be to say conventional wisdom is sometimes nonsense. Even so… why R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned and why now? Well, at the risk of sounding cynical, one might speculate that certain rights holders would like to retain those rights before a license expires (like MiB, R.I.P.D. is based on a comic book from the 1990s). Or perhaps Universal Pictures just wants to brandish its home entertainment, direct-to-DVD portfolio, and figures there are enough undiscerning souls out there to rent or buy a movie with R.I.P.D. in the title if it shows up on their VOD page or in Walmart bargain bins. Now why did Roy age from Donovan into Bridges after already dying in the 19th century? We do not know. But suffice to say getting someone else to play Roy might’ve proved more doable, just as a prequel set in the Old West (and shot in a desert) might be more cost effective than an action movie with lots of modern day locations and sets. In any event, you can feast your own eyes on the R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned trailer below. It will be available for home media on Nov. 15.
