Whether it’s Good Will Hunting,The Last Duel, or Air, the tangibility of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s 40-year friendship and on-screen partnership has always made for interesting cinema. It’s something director Joe Carnahan and Netflix have, rightfully, capitalised on for crooked cop thriller The Rip, which pits the pair against one another in a grab for greed and power.
A throwback to the B-movie thriller of old, The Rip follows Lieutenant Dane (Damon)’s narcotics task force as they’re tipped to the whereabouts of “a rip” – a stashhouse holding illegal money that the tipper gets 10% off once seized. But when the $150,000 tip ends up being a $20 million stash, it starts to threaten the team’s trust as detectives JD (Affleck), Mike (Steven Yeun), Numa (Teyana Taylor), and Lolo (Catalina Sandino Moreno) all find themselves tempted by the promise of security, freedom, and a new life that this payday could bring.
The Rip arrives as perfect January fodder – an old-school, throwaway actioner led by capital M movie stars. It’s the kind of film that would take in a comfortable box-office haul and prove a hit amongst dads and those needing respite from the awards circuit; it’s even rote material for director Carnahan (Copshop, Boss Level, The A-Team). Instead, it’s relegated to the small-screen home of Netflix, and perhaps it’s a product of its streaming ecosystem, but the film never rises above the sum of its more interesting parts. It’s brash and predictable filmmaking, a “guess who the fox in the hen house is” even though the so-called “twists” are signposted from the opening scene in which Miami cop Jackie (Lina Esco) is murdered for some information.
The mystery is over-egged, while the limited action never excites or thrills; bursts of yellow gunfire against the muted, blue nightscape of Miami are fun every so often, but Carnahan’s unwillingness to engage his seasoned actors in more inventive and taut choreography keeps the narrative momentum feeling frustratingly weak and stale. The performances themselves are fine; Damon and Affleck are always immensely watchable together, their roles and on-screen friendship here playing into their obvious, real-life strengths as collaborators. The deceit within the group, as loyalties are tested, is where the dynamics come alive the most; there’s some fizzy, fun stuff for the cast to chew on against each other, although the promise of watching Affleck and Damon go head to head is underutilised and mostly put on the back burner.
The ingredients are all there: Carnahan has proven himself a confident genre hand time and time again; Affleck and Damon’s action portfolios speak for themselves; the crooked crop throwback story offers ripe Friday night viewing energy. And certainly, The Rip delivers frequently entertaining bursts thanks largely to the game cast, but it’s not a particularly cohesive whole and leaves a lot of the firecracker potential at the door.
The Rip is on Netflix from Friday, 16th January, 2026.
The Rip
Summary
The Rip delivers frequently entertaining bursts but leaves a lot of the firecracker potential at the door.
