R.I.P.D. (review)

By Joe Yezukevich

I was walking through Downtown Boston awhile back and I came to an intersection full of abandoned, junk cars.

It was a creepy discovery to make while walking down what is on any other day a road teeming with cars that have never heard of the Massachusetts’ pedestrian right of way rule.

As I turned the corner onto State Street, facing the historic Old State House, I realized that this is a movie set and, upon further inspection, that the movie being filmed was R.I.P.D. and I become excited.

You need to understand that Boston has only recently become a thriving city for movie making on a major scale.

Sure Boston has been home to classic movies like The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Good Will Hunting, Boondock Saints and The Departed, but there is still that nagging feeling that Boston is the lost urban cousin of New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. So when I find a movie set, I get choked up with home town pride and child-like with excitement that I am witnessing a point in time being put to film for history to discover. Then when I find out that a potential sci-fi blockbuster is being filmed in town, I get spastic.

So, personal stories aside, R.I.P.D. successfully captures Boston’s current cityscape and uses it as the canvas for dizzying CGI that comes off a bit more Wreck-It Ralph than I care for.

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