R.I.P.D (2013)

 “You think you've had a bad day at work? I think I got you beat.”

            Sometimes I question why I want to see movies. Usually I want to see a certain movie because either everyone is talking about it or an actor or actress I like happens to be in. Rarely do I want to see a movie for the heck of just seeing it. One movie I wanted to see just for the heck of it was R.I.P.D. I am not a huge fan of Ryan Reynolds or Jeff Bridges. The story seemed different. I almost saw this in the movies and although it was alright I am glad I did not pay to see it.

            Nick (Reynolds) is a Boston cop. He and his partner Hayes (Kevin Bacon) recently raided a crack house where besides drugs they find pieces of gold. Nick has a crisis of conscience over the stolen gold. He wants out with Hayes on the stealing and promises he is not a snitch and will not say anything to anyone about it. Nick and Hayes are part of a squad on a huge drug raid in a warehouse. Nick chases after the main drug dealer all the way to the top floor. Hayes shows up. He tells Nick that he cannot have him going around with the gold and then shoots him. Nick falls to his death.

            The world around Nick has stopped when he opens his eyes. He walks out of the warehouse. All around him is chaos with blown up cars and the police fighting the bad guys. When he walks outside he is lifted up into the clouds. The pull is gentle and calm but the landing is rough and quick. Nick has been seated in a chair in what looks like a holding cell across from a woman only known as Proctor (Mary-Louise Parker). Proctor does not give Nick the chance to talk she goes on how he is a dirty cop and to redeem himself on Judgment Day he can join the R.I.P.D- The Rest in Peace Department- to help the living world from the undead. Their main objective is to find what they call “Deados” who can cause havoc in the living world.  

            Proctor partners Nick up with an old guy named Roy (Jeff Bridges). Roy has been at the game for a very, very long time and is not too happy with having a rookie with him. Roy brings Nick to a Deado who has been hiding out as a human. They ask the guy some questions to get him to squirm and then all the sudden the guy turns into a weird Deado and runs away. Roy and Nick eventually catch up to him and the Deado throws up some things including pieces of gold that look like the ones he and Hayes had taken.

            Now Nick wants to investigate why the Deado had the same gold he had and what the thing’s connection to Hayes might be.

            R.I.P.D. is silly and somewhat entertaining. To me Mary-Lousie Parker stole the movie in her few scenes. In the movies I have seen her and also from watching her on Weeds she tends to underplay her parts and is so sarcastic and dry and quick. I liked her character too she was no nonsense and to the point, you can tell she has been doing her job for a long time. Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges were alright. Their characters were boring. R.I.P.D. is not a movie you need to rush out to see. It is predictable and at times a bit boring.

 

Red (2010)

“This used to be a Gentleman's game.”

            Twelve years ago I caught a marathon of the TV show Alias on ABC Family. My grandparents raved on and on about it and how much I would like seeing this girl kicking everyone’s ass wherever she went. So when I saw there was a marathon on ABC Family I started watching it and from the first episode I saw I was hooked. That night was the premier of Alias’s second season and from then on my life has never been in the same in many ways. Honestly, if I never watched Alias I would not be running this blog today. Anyway, to get to the point, since that time I have love watching movie and books about spies. I think the world of espionage is fascinating both in real life and fantasy. I always say if I was smart enough I would love to work for the FBI or CIA as an undercover agent. For the past three years my grandparents have been telling me I need to see the movie Red because they kick a lot of ass, shoot and kill a lot of people, blow up almost everything and most of all because it is hysterical. I watched Red and it was one of the funniest most enjoyable movies I have seen in a while.

            Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retired black-ops agent. He lives in a nice quiet neighborhood all by himself in a nice house. Every month he gets his pension from the government and when he does he likes to call to speak to his case worker Sarah (Mary- Louise Parker). Both of them are bored and lonely in their lives. Sarah dreams of traveling and lives vicariously through her romance novels while Frank wakes up at 6am everyday and works out and also reads the novels Sarah tells him about. At 3am one morning Frank gets up and walks downstairs. There are men in his house in combat gear looking for him. Frank easily takes them out. He takes out bullets in one of the guns he pulled off one of the bodies, puts them on a frying pan, and heats it up. The bullets go off and soon enough a barrage of bullets are unleashed onto his house by a whole fleet of men in combat gear. Frank manages to take them out as well and gets away.

            Sarah had a bad date. She comes home and Frank is standing in her hallway. Sarah screams her head off that Frank is in her apartment. He is there to take her away since people are after him they will be after her to kill her because she has been talking to him. He ties her up and sticks her in the backseat of his car.

            Frank takes Sarah all over the place to find his old black-ops buddies. He finds out they are all targeted because they were involved in a recovery mission down in South America years before and they now need to be eliminated. He rounds up Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich), and Victoria (Helen Mirren) who all have their own special talents with weapons and information. They are all being chased down by an ambitious CIA agent named William Cooper (Karl Urban) whose job it is to get rid of people.

            The movie is too hysterical to give away too much detail other than what I have already written.

            The cast was perfect. They all interacted wonderfully. I was dying seeing Helen Mirren holding these huge guns and being a bad ass. To me Mary-Louise Parker and John Malkovich stole the entire movie they were the funniest to me. It looked like they all had a great time making this movie together. I like that whoever made this movie  did not just throw all these great actors in it for the sake of having names (well maybe they did) and only having them in the movie for like two seconds. Each actor had a wonderful amount of screen time and they were all perfect.

            Red is immensely enjoyable. I was cracking up with almost every scene because the characters were funny the dialogue was very sharp and witty. There are some scenes that you think “oh shit how are they gonna get out of this” and then boom they are out or something totally unexpected happens. Red is one of those action movies that just has everything that makes it great and enjoyable. Highly suggest seeing Red especially if you are like me and love watching spy movies.