It virtually feels sacrilegious that, within the 12 months of our lord 2026, an motion thriller starring each Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, directed by “Smokin Aces” heavyweight Joe Carnahan, is destined to bypass a large theatrical launch altogether. However that’s the business we now reside in. Not that their new movie, “The Rip,” doesn’t play on the small display. It does, and competently so. Nonetheless, there’s a lingering sense that its scope and ambition are mismatched with the way in which most audiences will expertise it for the primary time. Because it stands, “The Rip,” a muscular however barely overcooked thriller about two DEA officers caught within the aftermath of a drug bust gone sideways, is completely serviceable January programming, the type of film Netflix can reliably flip right into a streaming hit. Testosterone pumps by way of its veins, even because the pileup of double-crosses and purple herrings within the closing act almost unravels every little thing the movie has labored to determine.
Cinematographer Juanmi Azpiroz lenses the movie in a slick neo-noir sheen, although the visible strategy hardly ever commits to the specifics of place. Set in Miami, a metropolis lengthy strip-mined by crime cinema from “Dangerous Boys” to “Miami Vice,” the movie largely confines itself to a manicured suburban neighborhood. That is the place Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon) and Detective Sergeant JD Bryne (Affleck) reply to a Crime Stoppers tip a few home allegedly full of $300,000 in money. It’s a promising setup that by no means fairly capitalizes on its location, favoring polished interiors over environment or texture.
Joined by their crew, together with Teyana Taylor, Steven Yeun, and Catalina Sandino Moreno, the officers shortly uncover the tip undersold the truth. The stash totals greater than $20 million. The timing couldn’t be worse. Inner Affairs is already circling the unit over the homicide of a fellow officer, and the investigation carries a private sting since one of many federal brokers on the case occurs to be Bryne’s brother. Any whiff of impropriety surrounding the seized cash might carry all the crew down in flames.
From there, “The Rip” leans arduous into acquainted cop-movie territory, interrogating the ethical grey zones that separate good cops from soiled ones. At one level, a personality holds a bundle of money and displays on how even a fraction of it might be life-changing. With fixed references to price range cuts and dwindling time beyond regulation, the movie is keen to justify how temptation may corrode even probably the most principled officers. The title itself refers back to the seizure operation, a time period repeated so regularly you may get whiplash. Layer within the suspicion that one member of the crew is each a snitch and a cop killer, and the film briefly morphs right into a DEA-flavored whodunit.
What begins as a tense dwelling seizure shortly devolves right into a parade of style clichés, stacked one atop one other. Nonetheless, there may be an simple enchantment in watching Damon and Affleck commerce glances and guarded conversations, their stoic chemistry doing a lot of the heavy lifting. A playful supporting flip from Kyle Chandler provides some welcome texture, and the movie’s low-stakes Netflix power provides it the texture of an particularly cable movie-of-the-week. Carnahan and co-writer Michael McGrale appear satisfied their twists are sharper than they really are, however the plotting stays simply believable sufficient to keep up a baseline degree of engagement. The ultimate stretch delivers the anticipated barrage of gunfire and bone-crunching violence, although it additionally introduces a half-baked character beat involving Dumars’ youngster that feels clumsily grafted on and emotionally unearned.
“The Rip” might not reside as much as the promise implied by its title, however viewers searching for a slick, disposable thriller to fill a quiet Friday night time might do far worse. Even when the film runs out of gasoline simply because the credit roll.
THE RIP streams on Netflix Friday, January 16.