R.I.P.D.

Whatever you think about Will Smith, he squeezed three Men in Black movies out of a one-sentence premise based solely on his natural charisma and easy audience connection. Robert Schwentke's sci-fi/comedy/buddy-cop/zombie/ghost love story (high-concept enough yet?) instead offers the ironically detached comedic flop sweat of Ryan Reynolds, who gets blown off the screen by every lame special effect he encounters. Reynolds and Jeff Bridges, whose inexplicable enthusiasm is the film's only saving grace, play deceased cops from different centuries partnered to lock up the living dead. Based on a Dark Horse Comics comic book, the thoroughly unappealing R.I.P.D. collects lazy writing like a corpse attracts flies. The whole story is predicated upon its villains acquiring, assembling and activating an object they cannot possibly know exists.