![[REVIEW] The Rip](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjykzr2t_9_RdL3Q68qt_J7Bygwl6eD5h11pn1tOyilJopR_ywSluFMH2vaFR_V5Ui-6UW0A9Nikim7G72BTgfTzVSXWPxbr9t2QfWt_QvJcKTVr8kHsiju3ZNJ4rZuxe3gdbwr6DvY5bnt51-DW29OCZd50LLk3kHQ6jbLjV8nUIuBrJF_Dc-sw1Krdfo=w640-h358-rw "[REVIEW] The Rip")
Beyond the $20 Million: 5 Surprising Truths About Affleck and Damon’s ‘The Rip’
Joe Carnahan has spent the better part of two decades trying to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was Narc (2002). After years of drifting through the Hollywood machine with bloated spectacles and generic action junk, The Rip finally signals a "creative second wind" for the director. It is a meat-and-potatoes thriller that manages to transcend the typical Netflix action slump by prioritizing moral murkiness over CGI-heavy excess.
The film's title itself serves as the first layer of intrigue. In the world of the Miami Tactical Narcotics Team (TNT), a "rip" is police slang for seizing a dealer’s stock or cash. However, Carnahan leans into the term’s darker, illicit connotation: the act of stealing from criminals under the protection of a badge. When Lt. Dane Dumars (Matt Damon) and Det. Sgt. JD Byrne (Ben Affleck) discover $20 million behind the walls of a Hialeah stash house, the "rip" becomes a psychological pressure cooker that tests whether the soul can survive such a windfall.
The "Good Guy" Trap: Subverting 40 Years of Cinema History
Carnahan executes a masterful bit of meta-misdirection by weaponizing the audience’s collective nostalgia. By casting Steven Yeun and Kyle Chandler, he "dines off" decades of established character history to hide his villains in plain sight. We are psychologically predisposed to trust the man who played Glenn on The Walking Dead or the moral compass of Friday Night Lights.
The film allows this trust to fester while focusing suspicion on Matt Damon’s Lt. Dumars, whose erratic behavior—seizing his team’s phones and acting with cold detachment—suggests he is the one breaking bad. However, the intellectual hook of the film is a calculated "sting" mechanic. Dumars intentionally feeds different members of his team conflicting figures regarding the anonymous tip. While the team finds $20 million, Dumars tells certain members the tip was for $150,000 and others $300,000. The reveal of the true traitors—Detective Mike Ro (Yeun) and DEA Agent Matty Nix (Chandler)—is triggered precisely when Ro repeats back the $150,000 figure that Dumars only shared with the suspected mole.
Even the secondary players are part of this atmosphere of distrust, including Wilbur, the team’s money-sniffing beagle. As the AV Club notes, in a film defined by "alpha-posturing" and grimaces, Wilbur provides a cynical contrast; when even the dog is part of the tension, you know the moral ground is shifting.
The Emotional Anchor: A Tribute to a Real-Life Hero
While the cartel-driven plot is fictional, the film’s "abrasive realism" is rooted in the experiences of real-life Miami cop Chris Casiano, a close friend of Carnahan. The high-tension sequence where the team counts the money is not mere Hollywood fluff; it reflects actual Miami protocol, which requires officers to count seizures twice by hand on-site. This adds a "ticking clock" element to the film, as the team remains vulnerable to a cartel retaliation while verifying every dollar.
The film’s heart, however, belongs to Jake William Casiano, Chris’s son, who died of cancer at age 11 in 2021. The dedication card at the end of the film is mirrored in the narrative through Damon’s character. Lt. Dumars is a man hollowed out by the loss of his son and the crushing weight of "divorce debt." The recurring shots of his son’s image on his phone wallpaper provide an emotional weight that justifies his desperation. Damon’s performance excels here, leaning into his age to portray a man whose interest lies not in heroism, but in the exhaustion and "decay of the soul" that comes with a life of violence.
The 1,200-Person Payday: A Radical Shift in Streaming Economics
Behind the scenes, The Rip is an experiment in industry transparency. Produced through Affleck and Damon’s Artists’ Equity, the film features a revolutionary "backend bonus deal" that includes all 1,200 production members. If the film hits specific performance targets within a 90-day window on Netflix, every crew member receives a one-time bonus.
While this is a commendable effort to combat the streamer's traditional lack of transparency, industry analysts remain skeptical. Unlike a projected "mega-hit" like Kpop Demon Hunters, the formula for success for a mid-tier thriller like The Rip remains opaque. Netflix has not disclosed the specific viewership target required for the payout, leading critics like Lainey Gossip to wonder if the "success-to-bonus" target is actually achievable or merely a well-timed PR win for the stars.
The "Boiled Chicken" Dialogue: A Record-Breaking Script
If the film’s economics are progressive, its script is relentlessly regressive. The Rip has drawn fire for its repetitive profanity, which serves as a blunt instrument to establish its "grizzled" atmosphere. According to Plugged In, the film features roughly 325 uses of the f-word—averaging one every five seconds of its 113-minute runtime.
Reviewer Kennedy Unthank provided the most biting assessment of this linguistic choice:
"If variety is the spice of life, then The Rip’s word choice is unseasoned, boiled chicken."
The script includes 10 instances of the f-word paired with "mother" and six uses of the c-word, leading some critics to question if the dialogue is a genuine attempt at "alpha-posturing" or simply a failure of imagination. While the language certainly secures a hard R rating, it often borders on the monotonous, lacking the sharp wit found in Carnahan’s earlier work.
Cracking the Netflix "Action Slump" Code
Despite the linguistic repetition and a final act that Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com argues "goes on a little too long," The Rip is a rare critical darling for Netflix’s action department. With an 84% Rotten Tomatoes score, it has successfully transcended the "middle-tier" slump that has plagued the platform's big-budget hires.
By prioritizing the "shady types stumble onto treasure" trope over the $200 million spectacle of films like Red Notice, Carnahan has delivered what critics are calling an "old-fashioned meal."
Bottom Line
The Rip is a testament to the enduring creative chemistry between Damon and Affleck, but more importantly, it marks a necessary pivot for Joe Carnahan. It signals a renewed interest in the "erosion of the soul" caused by systemic corruption and personal grief. Whether the Artists’ Equity bonus model will force streamers to finally open their data vaults remains to be seen, but the film’s critical success proves that audiences are still hungry for adult-oriented crime dramas. In an unpredictable streaming landscape, this "old-fashioned meal" might just be the most modern thing Netflix has produced in years.
About the Writer
Jenny, the tech wiz behind Jenny's Online Blog, loves diving deep into the latest technology trends, uncovering hidden gems in the gaming world, and analyzing the newest movies. When she's not glued to her screen, you might find her tinkering with gadgets or obsessing over the latest sci-fi release.What do you think of this blog? Write down at the COMMENT section below.
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