"R.I.P.D."

I will apologise now, but I do not intend to waste valuable time reviewing this film in length.
Upon seeing the trailer I thought that the film could be entertaining, well at the end of the day that it what the trailer is meant for. But alas what the trailer conveyed and what I saw as the end result did not meet with equal satisfaction.

Shady Cop Nick dies in the line of duty, and heads towards the light. However due to his dealings during his mortal days, he has the chance to make amends by joining the R.I.P.D, naturally the Rest In Peace Department. The organisation hunts down 'deado's', they being people who have evaded going to their resting place, and still roam free on Earth, and to make matters worse they have found a way to mask their true state, so can wander freely.

So Nick joins the merry band of lawmakers, and is teamed up with Roy, he being from the time of the Wild West. They are assigned to find a mysterious artifact, which when the pieces are assembled, will allow all from above to roam free on Earth. This is something they aim to stop.

There are other little plot devices in the movie, but this outlines the jist.
On the whole the film comes across as an absolute mess, as though was thrown together in a ten minute meeting in some Executive's office, and it shows.
With the exception of "Buried", this latest film does little to improve the career of leading man Ryan Reynolds.
Jeff Bridges is an actor I greatly admire, like am sure many others do. He makes the best of a bad part, and does seem to be having fun, just wish the same could be said for this viewer. Also subtitles at times may have been handy, as one struggled to comprehend some of his southern dialogue at times.

An apt title as this film should rest in peace.........4 out of 10

"Safe House"

Denzel Washington moves to the dark side in his latest film as fugitive Tobin Frost. Whilst in South Africa he is trying to acquire some information from a rogue British Spy which he then intends to sell to the highest bidder. But things go all to cock when the Brit Spy is taken out of the equation, and a team of highly trained men are after both Frost and the information.

Seeing no way out, he makes his way to the American Embassy, and from there he is to be transported to a Safe House.
He enters Matt Weston, he has a great job, he generally juust sees to the day to day running of a South African Safe House, answering the odd phone call, nothing particularly exciting (rather like the film) until Tobin Frost is escorted to the House for safe keeping. Safe that is until that team of mercenaries arrive, keen to get Frost into their possession. A major gunfight follows, which sees Weston flee the Safe House with Frost in the car boot.

The rest of the film consists of a tug of war between Frost and Weston, one trying to escape from the other, and also stay ahead of the mercenaries. There is also a rogue element within the CIA, but like the rest of the film, one really does not give a toss.
The photography is far too in your face, the performances are all bland, with the exception of Washington who manages to acheive something with a very one dimensional character. The story is not at all engaging, it becomes tiresome, and the film is very violent. As for the rogue element, well there are no surprises there.

Washington and Gleeson deserve better........5 out of 10