The Rip Movie Review: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Reunite in Gritty Thriller
- Sreeju Sudhakaran
- Jan 21
- 3 min read
The Rip is a thriller set over the course of a single night, revolving around a task force that acts on a tip and lands on a discovery much larger than anyone expected. This leads to a series of mistrusts among the team members, while the fear that their lives are in danger looms large.
Directed by Joe Carnahan (The A-Team, Boss Level) and based on his own screenplay, The Rip brings together Matt Damon and Ben Affleck - longtime friends, joint Oscar winners, and creative associates. When they are on screen together, have we ever been disappointed? Well, The Rip is certainly not going to change that, except for the fact that it gives not much space for Scott Adkins to deliver some of his action chops.
The Rip Movie Review - What's The Movie About?
The TNT (Tactical Narcotics Team), part of the Miami police department, is under the microscope after the murder of their captain, Jackie (Lina Esco), by unidentified gunners. The department suspects that one of her team members could be involved in her death. Her second-in-command, Lieutenant Dane (Matt Damon), claims to have received a tipoff about a certain amount of cash hidden in a house, though he is quite evasive about sharing all the details with his team.
When they land at the house, which belongs to a Colombian immigrant named Desi (Sasha Calle), they find out that the hidden cash is much, much more than what they were told. Dane begins to act increasingly shifty, which worries Detective Sergeant JD Byrne (Ben Affleck), his friend and also Jackie's lover. They keep getting anonymous threatening calls, and as the night progresses, the distrust spreads to the other team members - Mike (Steven Yeun), Numa (Teyana Taylor), and Lolo (Catalina Sandino Moreno) - who are either wondering if any of their colleagues are traitors or are on the cusp of greed.
The Rip Movie Review - What We Thought of It
Since the film is set over one night, there is a sense of urgency to the central plotline, while the mystery of who murdered their boss hangs over the mission. The Rip keeps every main character, including Desi, under the shadow of suspicion so that the guessing game continues well into the final act.
The focus of the shiftiness is mostly on Damon's character, while the rest of the tension relies on the danger of being offed by someone, either within or outside the team. Carnahan does a swell job of building up this atmosphere of mistrust, and with fine casting in hand, it works well for the film. There is a particular reliance on the natural bromance between Damon and Affleck which works when the film has to develop a rift between the characters, and both actors pull it off well.
Despite the prominence given to the two main leads, Yeun also manages to stand out as the seemingly honest detective who doubts his superior's intentions. Teyana Taylor and Catalina Sandino Moreno make their presence interesting through their performances rather than their character arcs; it feels like a bit of a letdown that they don't get much to do in the overlong climactic standoff. This is particularly disappointing with Taylor, since we have seen how she can be an excellent scene-stealer even with the brief screentime allotted to her in Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another.
The reveal of the 'whodunit' may not come as a surprise, but what works for The Rip is how it manages to pull it off. This is a screenplay that knows that with only a handful of characters, the 'who' part may not shock the viewer, but how the curtain is pulled back is where it should shine. And shine it does, with enough tension masked by the darkness of a moving van to keep the intentions of those involved shrouded until the last minute. The shootout and the chase that followed felt a bit over-edited and too "video-gamey," but the film still surprisingly manages to close on a note of poignance with two characters looking into the sunrise, bloodied but content.
The Rip Movie Review - Should You Watch It or Not?
A tense, claustrophobic thriller elevated by the effortless chemistry of its leads. While the film does go loose in crafting an unmemorable climatic chase and fight, The Rip delivers enough suspense and star power to keep you hooked until then. The Rip is streaming on Netflix.
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