Ryan Reynolds' Worst-Reviewed Movie Is A Prime Video Hit 12 Years Later

When "National Lampoon's Van Wilder" surprised its distributor, Artisan Entertainment, by grossing $38 million worldwide on a $5 million budget in 2002, the film industry had no choice but to sit up and examine why this teen-skewing sex comedy far outperformed pricier studio offerings like "Slackers," "Sorority Boys," and "Stealing Harvard." All told, it's a lousy movie, but casting director Barbara Fiorentino unquestionably struck gold by gifting director Walt Becker, who would go on to make even lousier movies, with such primed-for-stardom actors as Kal Penn, Simon Helberg, and Ryan Reynolds.

As the title character, Reynolds worked a more-than-minor miracle by coming on like a Bill Murray-Chevy Chase hybrid. He was flippant as hell, but exuded a sexiness that eluded Chase in his "Saturday Night Live" prime. Reynolds was so charismatic that you wanted to laugh at his every utterance, but the script and Becker's direction stymied him at every turn.

Reynolds quickly began booking lead roles, but it took him a while to find the star vehicle that would propel him to the A-list where he belonged. I was worried for a second that he'd be submarined by poor management when he toplined the atrocious, amateurish "Waiting..." (which does have its defenders, somehow), but the one-two 2009 punch of Greg Mottola's cult-classic indie "Adventureland" (one of Reynolds' best movies) and Anne Fletcher's satisfyingly broad romantic comedy "The Proposal" did the trick. Kind of. While he appeared in some big hits after "The Proposal," Ryan Reynolds wouldn't go full supernova until "Deadpool" in 2016. And it's a testament to his high-wattage star power that he was able to survive some utterly dreadful would-be event films. It's even more impressive that, 12 years after it tanked in theaters, one of these movies is currently one of the most popular movies on Prime Video.

Based on the comic book "Rest In Peace Department" by Peter M. Lenkov and Lucas Marangon, Robert Schwentke's "R.I.P.D." had a lot going for it on paper. It was a "Men in Black" riff that teamed Reynolds with the great Jeff Bridges. The supporting cast (which included Mary-Louise Parker, Kevin Bacon, and James Hong) was impressive, while the $150 million budget promised eye-popping spectacle.

"R.I.P.D." is the worst kind of big-budget flop. It's all formula and no inspiration. There was probably a fun movie to be made about cops from the afterlife who have to track down expired perps who roam the Earth having escaped eternal judgment, but, sorry Patrick, this ain't it. I saw the movie at an all-media screening in 2013, and I remember not a single second of it. Nothing stuck. This is probably why it's Reynolds' worst movie according to Rotten Tomatoes (where it currently holds a 13% Rotten rating).

This makes it ideal for distracted viewing, I suppose. You can throw "R.I.P.D." on in the background, and every time you look up from your phone, something that cost Universal Pictures a whole lot of money will be happening. Whatever spiritual void that, say, reading Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus" could fill will at the very least get spackled over. You will bear witness to great actors gesticulating amid a flood of ones and zeroes, and for a moment you will feel what passes for awe in an age of emptiness. And you might just understand why Reynolds took a blockbuster break after it bombed.