The Rip ☆☆☆

Starring: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Teyana Taylor and Kyle Chandler

Directed by: Joe Carnahan

t’s tough to be too critical about The Rip, a modest cop thriller that stars lifelong buddies Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in their first movie together since they launched their own production, Artists Equity, with the release of Air nearly three years ago. After all, it’s exactly the type of film that Damon and Affleck felt there was still a market for, mid-budget, high-floor, low-ceiling dramas that aren’t based on any existing IP or part of an expanding cinematic universe. You’ve heard of four-quadrant movies? Well, The Rip is a one-quadrant movie. This is a film designed exclusively for folks who like watching aging male movie stars talk tough, shoot guns and solve crimes. It’s a movie that targets, with laser-precision, film bros who have purchased both The Departed and The Town in multiple formats.

The Rip isn’t nearly as good as either of those classics. But it’s not the worst idea in the world to put out an unpretentious crime drama, one that feels like it could have been released anytime post-Heat and pre-MCU, into today’s streaming marketplace. And if that’s the kind of movie you’re making, it makes a lot of sense that you’d team up with writer/director Joe Carnahan (Narc, Smokin’ Aces, The Grey), one of our chief purveyors of gritty, shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later-style action thrillers. With The Rip, which bypasses theatres entirely for a release on Netflix, Carnahan has made a film that’s just engaging enough to satisfy its single quadrant. But it also fails to elevate the formula in any way, resulting in a movie that’s unlikely to serve as anything other than a footnote in the careers of its two leading men.

In The Rip, Damon and Affleck play two Miami cops, Lt. Dane Dumars and Det. Sgt. JD Byrne, who work on a strike force labelled “T.N.T.” (Tactical Narcotics Team) that raids drug stash houses. When a member of their team frantically texts them a hot tip right before getting gunned down by masked assailants, the squad finds themselves raiding a suspected drug den that has $20 million in cash hidden away in barrels behind a false wall in the attic. The only person in the house, a young woman named Desi (Sasha Calle), claims she knows nothing about it. The five-person strike force (which, in addition to Damon and Affleck, is filled out by Steven Yeun, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Teyana Taylor) is immediately overcome by both fear and paranoia, as they begin wondering both who might be coming for the money and which of their team members might decide to seize the loot for themselves. Dumars not wanting to phone in the find to HQ doesn’t exactly inspire confidence among the troops, and shady local cops are patrolling the street out front. And then a threatening phone call comes in: “You’ve got 30 minutes to get out of that house.”

From that point, The Rip riffs on several different action-movie tropes and scenarios, it’s a siege movie! Wait, maybe it’s a heist movie! as the plot dutifully untangles itself via a series of twists and turns that too often feel mandated rather than inspired. Some lip service is paid to character depth, but really, both Damon and Affleck are just playing stock “tough guy” characters that likely didn’t require much prep aside from growing a grizzled beard. That said, there’s a reason these guys are still movie stars nearly three decades after Good Will Hunting and there’s admittedly some fun to be had in watching them step into roles that feel more grounded than the outsized, big-screen characters they’ve often been tasked to play.

The supporting cast is also worth paying attention to, as it’s far more interesting than what we typically get from a January Netflix release. Yeun is always reliable, and this is Taylor’s first film since starring in and winning a Golden Globe for One Battle After Another, which boosted her career last fall. Kyle Chandler is also around as a DEA agent keeping tabs on the situation. And, while Carnahan didn’t have to cast VOD action star Scott Adkins as a federal investigator who’s looking into the team and just so happens to also be Byrne’s brother, I’m certainly happy that he did. Don’t expect any roundhouse kicks from Adkins, though. He’s only in two scenes, and The Rip doesn’t feature much in the way of hand-to-hand combat.

What it does have is gunfire, as the film’s biggest action set pieces are all by-the-book shootouts that Carnahan shoots like a pro. The story itself is also standard issue, offering up the prerequisite number of double-crosses, fake- outs, and plot-explaining flashbacks until everyone’s true motive is revealed and the surprise villain or villains can be held accountable. The Rip’s closest cousin might honestly be the FX cop show The Shield, which was also about a highly specialised strike team that wasn’t exactly on the level and often found themselves stuck in situations spiralling out of control. The Shield wasn’t afraid to get dark, though, while The Rip feels like it needs to play it safe enough to accommodate its movie-star leads.

Carnahan, who wrote the script and shares a story credit, musters a feeling of authenticity. I’m not a Miami cop, so it could be faux authenticity as far as I know, but the characters in The Rip do speak a certain way and carry themselves in a manner that feels true to the dingy, dangerous world it builds out. Thankfully though, The Rip cuts to credits right at the hour-and-45-minute mark. Just like the T.N.T. itself, this movie wants to get in, get the job done without complication and get out before it overstays its welcome. On that front, The Rip is solid enough to earn a mild recommendation.

– Courtesy: Collider.com

Rating system: *Not on your life * ½ If you really must waste your time ** Hardly worth the bother ** ½ Okay for a slow afternoon only *** Good enough for a look see *** ½ Recommended viewing **** Don’t miss it **** ½ Almost perfect ***** Perfection