Movie Review: Motivations Behind A Drug Money Bust Are Murky In Delightfully Gritty Affleck/Damon Police Thriller "The Rip"

8/12 ForReel Score | 3.5/5 Stars

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artist’s Equity takes its first swan dive into old school meathead action cinema with Joe Carnahan’s The Rip. They scratched the surface with The Accountant 2 but that quickly made an unfortunate turn into sitcom territory that dulled the edges of the original. The Rip takes an unapologetically straight faced approach to its grimy and hyperviolent blend of police action flick and paranoid heist thriller. Par for the course for Carnahan (Narc, They Grey, Copshop) who is inconsistent but can churn out a wildly entertaining vulgar romp when he’s in the zone. The Rip isn’t one of his very best films but it is a solid vehicle for Affleck and Damon to banter and bicker as enemies from outside and within close in on them. 

Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon) and Detective Sergeant JD Byrne (Affleck) are two Miami Police officers who are in hot water from the moment this starts. They’re being questioned by the feds, one of whom is JD’s brother Del (Scott Adkins) about the murder of their peer Captain Jackie Velez (Luina Esco). They’re confused and pissed and in the meantime, nothing is getting solved. Shortly afterwards, Dumars receives a tip about a stash of $150,000 of cartel money hidden in a Hialeah house. They along with fellow detectives Mike Ro (Steven Yeun), Numa Baptiste (Teyana Taylor) and Lolo Salazar (Catalina Sandino Moreno) head straight over to conduct a seizure (or Rip, as they refer to it). The home’s resident Desi (Sasha Calle) claims to know nothing since she’s simply taking care of her late grandmother’s house, but her story comes into question when the team stumbles upon barrels containing millions of dollars in drug money in the attic. Tensions quickly escalate between the team as stories stop lining up, making it clear that someone is dirty and out to take the money for themselves. In the meantime, they’re receiving threats, and enemy fire isn’t far behind. 

Carnahan’s script is thorny and sharp, setting aside plenty of time for Damon and Affleck to cut loose as accusations start flying. Damon is a bit more cloudy, as he’s ridden with grief over the loss of his son and thus his decisions seem a bit more erratic and questionable. He plays that tension perfectly. Affleck is a bit more straight edged, about as concerned with morality as any cop is capable of being. Since he has way more experience in the crime genre, he brings a bit more intensity than Damon, but their chemistry is as potent as ever. Steven Yeun also gets some juicy moments as the lower ranking posse member who is becoming more skeptical of the situation. Taylor and Moreno are a bit underutilized, mostly hanging out in the background chatting it up and staying relatively calm while the sparks are flying. It would’ve made sense for them to get some time to bounce off of Calle, who keeps her cool as these two white men grill her for details, but never really gets the chance to play off the rest of the team. 

The action is as slick and brutal as one might expect from Carnahan. As these shootouts go from the Florida streets to the rooftops to the highways, I couldn’t help but think about how he came within inches of directing Bad Boys For Life. He has such a clear sense of how to stage these sequences, chaotic and brutal but never hard to follow. Occasionally, budget limitations shine through, but this is certainly one of the most well produced action flicks to come out of Netflix. 

There is a certain level of guilt felt while enjoying a police centric thriller, particularly one involving the cartels, during a time where Latino people are being indiscriminately taken from their homes out of nonsensical suspicion of being involved with criminal elements by ICE. While The Rip certainly does not paint its cops as saints, I do wish that it was more willing to get its hands dirty. It ultimately seems to believe that this is a horrifically botched and corruption ridden attempt at a moral home invasion and even those nuances will likely be lost upon the audience who will gravitate to this most. Action movies can be tremendously revealing about the cycles of violence they portray and The Rip constantly approaches having something deeper to say before slamming on the brakes. 

It is wonderful to see Affleck and Damon embracing their on-screen partnership just as much as their business one. There was far too long a period where they were unwilling to share the screen together. With this new era of films, it seems as though they are enjoying creating more than ever and are giving us some much needed old school thrills in the process. The Rip may not reach the heights of some of the other action and crime films these men have starred in, but it is certainly of a higher caliber than Netflix usually goes for. Hopefully, it performs well, and the crew will receive the well deserved backend deal that Affleck and Damon negotiated.