Rise of the Damned–Jeffrey Donovan goes Wynonna Earp in RIPD prequel

Back in 2014 we reviewed the movie R.I.P.D., a good, not great movie that had a performance by Jeff Bridges which alone made it worth watching.  Next month Burn Notice and Law & Order actor Jeffrey Donovan is stepping into Bridges’ role as Sheriff Roy Pulsifer in the prequel movie, R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned.  R.I.P.D. stands for the Rest in Peace Department, and it hails from a popular graphic novel.  Like the Men in Black, this worldwide squad tries to keep the peace between our world and their world.  That hidden world has simple rules: when you die you go to heaven or hell, but sometimes the dead get caught in between.  It’s up to R.I.P.D. to track down those in-between souls.  It sounds serious but it’s mainly all comic book fun and over-the-top action movie antics.

Merging ghosts and “hidden worlds behind our world,” like Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, Ghost Rider, and yes, Men in Black.  It’s content less for a blockbuster and more for a goofy romp.  If you ever wanted to see a live-action Yosemite Sam, you can see what that would be like with Jeff Bridges’ performance as an undead ex-U.S. Marshall and Civil War soldier.  Donovan as a young Bridges?  It might just work, although it looks as much like his take on Wynonna Earp.  Take a look at a preview below.

The first eight minutes of R.I.P.D. 2 is streaming on the Universal website here.  And here is the trailer:

RIPD 2: Rise of the Damned comes to digital and Blu-ray November 15, 2022.  The first R.I.P.D. is on Blu-ray and DVD and the original graphic novel is available from Amazon.

C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg