There’s nothing new in this film. But it has Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and that’s enough.
The Rip, a fast-rising action thriller on Netflix, follows Miami police officers who stumble upon a massive pile of cash, entangling them with a major cartel and with each other.
With big money comes suspicion and plenty of bad blood.
There are no surprises, and the plot is explained repeatedly, yet the chemistry between Damon and Affleck still works its magic.
Despite all the cynicism toward this well-groomed veteran duo Damon and Affleck one can appreciate their decades-long friendship on and off screen. In Good Will Hunting, which introduced them to the world and earned them an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay before they were thirty,
it was Affleck’s character who encouraged Damon’s to harness his genius and leave behind the struggles of his childhood neighborhood in Boston.
In The Last Duel, directed by Ridley Scott in 2021, they explored their own personas again: Damon as the seemingly good-hearted knight confronting Affleck’s aging trickster, and in Air, Affleck’s film about signing Michael Jordan to Nike, the pair collaborated on achieving sports legend status for a campaign.
Affleck tends to be the flashier one, Damon the “good guy” at least on the surface.
Friendship, and its potential collapse, is central to The Rip. The two play again as partners this time in a special Miami police unit with all the charm of Miami Vice, where every officer, criminal, and accountant seems to arrive wearing flip-flops and bandanas.
The story begins with a small stash of cash hidden in a quiet suburban home.
During the raid, the team discovers it’s actually $20 million. Suddenly, everyone realizes someone doesn’t want them leaving with the money. Perhaps someone on the team Damon, Affleck, or both is tempted to steal it while also watching to see if the other is planning a betrayal.
The Rip is written and directed by Joe Carnahan, a seasoned Hollywood professional whose films often explore cops, thieves, informants, and guntoting drug dealers.
His breakout film, Narc (2002), explored similar territory, and he was once set to direct a third, unnecessary Goodfellas-style sequel before being replaced due to a rough script.
Carnahan’s best work arguably remains The Grey, a slightly philosophical yet brutal story of a man facing wolves in Alaska.
In The Rip, everything is explained, again and again. Damon recently commented that Netflix often requires creators to have characters constantly explain the plot aloud, since viewers prefer to multitask while streaming.
Damon and Affleck are not the screenwriters here only producers but the film remains a fairly standard American crime thriller: neither especially clever nor stupid, well-crafted, but familiar.
The classic plot of “a group of cops/partners discovers a pile of money, and questions arise about who will betray whom first” is known from countless crime films and series.
Carnahan, a professional with old-school taste, doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, and Damon and Affleck no longer mega-stars still bring charisma and chemistry to their shared scenes. The film is solid but could have been meatier.
The action is competent, including a “everyone shoots everyone” sequence. A minor flaw is that the main twist identifying the villain comes about two-thirds of the way through, leaving only chases and shootouts on Miami’s highways.
It’s not extraordinary action, and the tension drops in the final act. Another slightly annoying, borderline woke detail: in a multicultural city, the police unit appears as a diversity showcase, yet the plot is driven by the two white leads, who must flaunt their ability to speak broken Spanish while the “people of color” remain background.
Notably, Luciana Damon, Affleck’s Argentine wife of over twenty years, is listed among the producers, suggesting some personal influence on the film.
The result is a movie that’s not bad, not remarkable, and perfectly suitable for Netflix: a reminder that films about ordinary people, friendship, and aging stars still exist. Hopefully, Damon and Affleck will take on more interesting projects soon.
