Review of RIPD

RIPD

NICK WALKER, is a decent guy.  He's a loving husband to his wife, JULIA, and a good cop. Usually. One day, he and his partner, BOBBY, find gold in a house they've raided and they keep the gold for themselves instead of turning it in as evidence. But Nick is basically honest and regrets his actions, so he tells Bobby he intends to return his share of the gold, but he won't tell on Bobby, so Bobby can keep his own share. Bobby seems to acquiesce, but during a raid on another criminal's hideout, Bobby shoots Nick in the face and kills him.

Nick never returned the gold (never mind that he didn't have the chance), so he's judged a dirty cop and, instead of heaven, he's sent to the RIPD, the Rest in Peace Department. There, police officers like him are sent to track down 'deadoes,' people who have already died but have somehow managed to stay on Earth where they cause all sorts of problems. Nick is made a junior partner to ROYCEPHUS "ROY" PULSIPHER, a rootin, tootin, marshal from the old west. Together, they hunt down deadoes who are disguised as normal humans. Hint: talking to a deadoe about Indian food will make him pop into his normal monstrous appearance.

It turns out that Bobby, Nick's murderer, is a deadoe. He and others plan to use the stolen gold to create a staff of Jericho, an artifact to let the dead to return to Earth en masse and ruin the world. Worse, Bobby wants to use Nick's wife, Julia, as a human sacrifice to activate the staff.  Still worse, Nick and partner Roy have been taken off the case and are told the 'celestial review board' might recommend erasure for the two...

Certainly enough to cause suspense, at least in theory.

This movie has more plot flaws and clichés than a dog has places to pee, but so what? It's a parody--at least, that's how I see it. Granted, it doesn't always work. The shoot-out on main-street and the buildings crashing while people scream aren't ridiculous enough to laugh at. On the other hand, Indian food unmasking ghosts (you wonder what happens to people from India) and fat deadoes bouncing off buildings and cackling evilly made me laugh. As a workout film, RIPD has enough get your pulse up to a run.  I give it ++++.