The Rip

Grade: B

The presence of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck starring opposite one another in The Rip may, understandably, draw comparisons to 2024’s Wolfs – which reunited George Clooney and Brad Pitt. While I enjoyed the latter, it played like an obvious vehicle for these two stars to get together again, with every other element seeming like an afterthought. The Rip is a little bit better than Wolfs, and I believe it would have stood on its own no matter who was filling those two roles.

It hits the ground running with an opening that introduces a character that I assumed would be a primary one we would follow. She is Captain Jackie Velez (Lina Esco from S.W.A.T), of the Miami-Dade PD. Her first scene is also her last, other than quick flashbacks. She is murdered by two unknown, masked assailants. This may or may not have something to do with everything else we see transpire. Meanwhile, we meet several others on the force, questioning each other about Jackie’s death. One of them is Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon). He receives a tip that there’s a stash house for the drug cartel that has illegally obtained money. The title phrase refers to the action of “ripping” or seizing this drug money, and on he goes to the house – with a few colleagues – to make the rip.

Accompanying Damon are various detectives and sergeants played by Affleck, Steven Yeun (Mickey 17, Nope, Minari), Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another, The Book of Clarence), and Catalina Sandino Moreno. As for the projected rip amount, Damon has told a different number to each person, for reasons we’ll find out – but they are in the neighborhood of 150K to 300K. They arrive to find much more money than that. About 20 million. This presents an ethical dilemma. The force is only expecting a maximum of 300. Would anyone miss or even notice if some skimming took place? Or maybe, just maybe, will everyone do the right thing?

The Rip is one of those movies (like 1998’s Wild Things) with a plot so twisty, that I conclude that it’s ultimate endgame is to fool the audience. There are double-crosses, triple-crosses, and fake-outs where we find the film wasn’t giving it to us straight earlier. You can’t always trust the dialogue you are privy to. Some scenes get shown again from a different point of view, with parts we didn’t see the first time. A character stages a “private” whispery conversation that isn’t serious. It was meant to be overheard by somebody in another room, to see what they would do with the information they think they have.

The screenplay has a limited vocabulary. I don’t have sensitive ears by any stretch of the imagination (and I’m usually anti proclaiming that cussing is an indicator of a “limited vocabulary”), but that word is used a distracting amount of times here. Granted, the majority of the movie takes place at night, but it’s so darkly filmed. The climactic action sequence didn’t do much for me. It’s a lot of driving around on surprisingly unattended city streets, while it occasionally cuts to fights that look too cleanly choreographed, while they shout out their favorite word.

Some of the genre’s conventions did work for me, despite themselves, and were almost endearing. There’s a Talking Killer monologue where someone is way too loud and specific, even before they learn they’ve been on speaker phone. Damon, Affleck, Yeun, Taylor, and Moreno have chemistry, and it’s nice to see Kyle Chandler (Anniversary) when he turns up. For what The Rip is trying to do, it succeeds. I found most of it exciting and fun. The characters would have thrown an extra adverb and adjective into that last sentence.

Grade: B