12 Movies That Were Dead On Arrival

“R.I.P.D” stands for “Rest in Peace Department”, which ought to give you a pretty good idea of why the film flopped. Ryan Reynolds plays a murdered cop who, due to his brush with corruption, is recruited to purgatory-like service on the titular afterlife arm of the Boston police. A cynic might assume that they came up with the title before thinking of the story, and that cynic would be correct.

Jeff Bridges looks embarrassed to be playing a grizzled Civil War veteran who has similarly found his way onto the force, and Reynolds doesn’t fare much better in his usual wiseacre role. Early notices were dripping with disdain, with the trailer and even the poster clearly positing this as a Men In Black rip off, only with more dead folks. The final product was even worse than anticipated, a true insult to the intelligence of the viewing public. It isn’t tedious - it’s bafflingly bad, and somewhat entertaining for it - but it’s a mess.

Amazingly, a video game adaptation followed the same year, which was also panned. The film’s budget wasn’t enormous, but the black mark on the studio was substantial. A true “what were they thinking?” moment.