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Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in The Rip.Netflix
The Rip
Written and directed by Joe Carnahan
Starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Steven Yeun
Classification N/A; 112 minutes
Streaming on Netflix starting Jan. 16
The new thriller The Rip answers a few of this era’s most important Hollywood-centric questions.
Can Netflix produce an original movie that feels like it could legitimately play in movie theatres and not just on your phone while you complete various household tasks? Do Matt Damon and Ben Affleck still possess the bouncy camaraderie that the pair used to launch their careers nearly three decades ago? Does Joe Carnahan deserve to be freed from director jail after delivering last year’s double dose of dumb, Shadow Force and Not Without Hope? And is Teyana Taylor the cinematic equivalent of dopamine, instantly energizing every film that she’s briefly air-dropped into? Fortunately for The Rip, the answer is a “yes” – or at least a solid “sure, why not” – to all of the above.
A corrupt-cop drama that is mostly aware about its B-minus-movie aspirations, Carnahan’s film is a thoroughly enjoyable if not particularly original mashup of Training Day, Cop Land, Triple 9 and a dozen-plus other films in which it is up to One Good Cop™ to solve a mystery involving a dead police captain, dirty officials and millions of dollars in drug-cartel money.
The ostensible hero in this case is Miami lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon), whose task force specializes in “rips” – seizing ill-gotten cash from the city’s various gangs, who have become so brazen as to gun down Dane’s chief in the film’s opening minutes. After Dane receives an anonymous tip about a stash house filled to the brim with contraband that might be connected to his boss’s murder, the cop finds himself falling into a twisty tale of shady allegiances and questionable motives.
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Teyana Taylor in The Rip.Claire Folger/Netflix
Is Dane willing to risk his career for millions of untraceable dollars? Or is he falling into a trap set up by one of his possibly compromised teammates, who include the hot-headed detective J.D. (Affleck), a shifty officer named Mike (Steven Yeun), and two female cops who badly need more character details (played by Sasha Calle and One Battle After Another breakout Taylor)?
The script from Carnahan is not especially enticing – there are a few decent third-act swerves, but too often the filmmaker best known for Narc and Smokin’ Aces (the latter also featuring Affleck) relies on a kind of tough-guy talk that feels like David Ayer (End of Watch) on autopilot. Did Carnahan title his film “The Rip” to acknowledge his own habit of appropriating the styles and techniques of his contemporaries? God only knows, and Carnahan’s world isn’t one that is kind to snitching, no matter or not if it’s of divine provenance.
The director also shoots much of the film according to Netflix’s unofficial house style: poorly lit, unimaginatively blocked, and edited with one eye toward making sure audiences will be comfortable enough darting their attention to a second screen without missing anything all that important. For a movie about heavily armed cops unafraid of unleashing hell, so much of The Rip’s action feels sanitized and safe, a smooth kind of grittiness whose aesthetic and emotional impact clears long before the artificial smoke.
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Steven Yeun in The Rip.Claire Folger/Netflix
Yet it is difficult to ignore all the same thanks to Damon and Affleck, who eagerly oscillate between playing comrades and combatants. With the two taking on roles that stick awfully close to their natural personas – Damon is the clean-cut brawler while the hair-trigger Affleck is constantly one second from going completely off the rails – the long-time buddies are simply having a ball playing cops and robbers, lending an explosive potency to a script that simply doesn’t deserve such ambition and chemistry.
Although the pair have spent much of their careers running away from each other rather than getting closer – The Rip marks only their fifth on-screen collaboration, with three of those films coming out over the past five years – it’s clear that as they age out of their respective action-hero playgrounds they’ve found strength in digging into their shared history as benevolent bros. There is a love and respect between the two men that instantly deepens whatever shtick they’re asked to participate in. Case closed, boys.
