Another Affleck/Damon movie worth plenty of money.
“The Rip” is the latest collaboration between Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and their first acting roles together since “Air.” It’s also the latest action movie to find its release on Netflix, and it’s quite an entertaining movie that likes to toy with our assumptions on who the good guy and who the bad guy is. In fact, it likes to enter the “Who To Trust” category on par with “Reservoir Dogs,” “The Departed,” “Knives Out,” “Memento,” and “The Thing,” among many others.
And being an Affleck/Damon movie, it knows the meaning of the word “attitude,” and has the characters arguing, making snappy comebacks, and trying to unravel whatever mystery the movie places them in. At this point, I trust these two in an action movie more than I’ve been trusting Jason Statham lately with run-of-the-mill action movies like “The Beekeeper” and “A Working Man,” especially when they’re not reincarnated as the same people.
The movie, set in a dark, foggy and sometimes drizzling Miami, begins with police captain Jackie Velez (Lina Esco) being killed, and the answers are either she was dirty or somebody else on the force was dirty. I guess you have to begin a cop movie on a dark drizzling or foggy evening. After all, “Casablanca” specialized on the fog. The main cops of this story are none other than Damon as Lieutenant Dane Dumars and Affleck as Detective Sergeant JD Byrne. Byrne hates his fed brother Del (Scott Adkins), and Dumar hates being a cop. So, you’re probably guaranteed some tension between the two at some point later on.
Trying to figure out what their captain has gotten herself into, they must collaborate with other detectives: Mike Ro (Steven Yeun), Nima Baptiste (Teyana Taylor, who just took home the Golden Globe for “One Battle After Another”), and Lolo Salazar (Catalina Sandino Moreno). Searching a young woman named Desi’s (Sasha Calle) grandmother’s home, they find a $20 million rip in the attic. And as a precaution, the detectives must give their phones to Dumar and they must count the money.
But at this point, it’s difficult for them to know who to trust. There are phone calls telling them to not to get in too deep with the money game, street lights in morse code, and a DEA agent (Kyle Chandler) on call. Even Dumars and Byrne have to snap and call each other’s bluff. And Desi wants to get out of the situation as fast as possible, but she’s told to shut up by some of the detectives.
“The Rip,” written and directed by Joe Carnahan, is a little predictable about who the real villain is, but it does know how to handle the genre and uses the right actors to try use their civilized words, instead of just “Hands Up” or “Don’t you move.” Cliche cop movie stuff that we need to cut back on every now and then. In fact, I like how they handle the search warrant scene with Desi, as they calmly use their words and explain the situation. They just want to make sure she isn’t lying about anything.
Beside Affleck and Damon delivering the goods in the leads, we also get some committed supporting work from Yeun, Taylor, Moreno, Calle, Adkins, and Chandler, and they mange to drive us up the wall about who to trust. It all depends on how their characters handle their situations and who calls the shots. Even when I was watching this movie on my MacBook Pro and even when things get crazy, I was still glued and charmed by what “The Rip” is trying to accomplish. There’s stolen money in the mix, and I guess that’s how this movie knows it’s not a waste of time and money for these talents.
PS. You can tell me I like and watch too many Affleck and Damon movies, but who cares? They work great together.
Streaming on Netflix Tomorrow
