Director Paul Leyden
Starring Jeffrey Donovan, Rachel Adedeji & Penelope Mitchell
Rated M
Score 1/6

Recruited by the R.I.P.D., a resurrected sheriff returns to Earth to save humanity from a gateway to hell.

A certain amount of mental gymnastics is required with R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned because it is a prequel/reboot and doesn’t star Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds though it does feature Roicephus “Roy” Pulsipher Bridges’ character from the 2013 movie who is played by Jeffrey Donovan, who really wasn’t suited to the role, either that or I couldn’t see him as anybody else other then Michael Western. I went into this completely unfamiliar with writer/director Paul Leyden’s work and based on some of the jokes in Rise of the Damned I’m not in a hurry to watch any of his other movies.I thought that an Australian M rating was a little harsh and might have benefited from a rating more suitable for its core demographic which was clearly under the age of 18. I understand that comic book movies are a popular genre, but with that popularity they have become a victim of the success of the genre, I believe that if  .Rise of the Damned (being the faux sequel that is) had been released upon the cinemas there would have been more than a few people bitching about what was wrong with the movie as they left the theater and as movies based on a comic book western I have founder memories of watching Jonah Hex. Rise of the Damned is a perfect cinematic example of the boobish line of thinking ‘just because you have the rights to an intellectual property you should always use them’. Even though it was a little over the top Richard Brake was the only person who came close to giving a tolerable performance as Otis Clairborne. I also thought that it was interesting to have the avatars of Roy and his partner  Jeanne (portrayed by Penelope Mitchell) to be black women.