Already dealing with allegations of corruption, a veteran Tactical Narcotics Team (led by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck) stumble on a drug house filled with more than $20 million in cash.
As they count out the haul, the team receive an ultimatum to leave the house or die. As the deadline approaches, the team’s own internal divisions begin to tear them apart…
I think I read Joe Carnahan’s words before I watched one of his movies. Before he was a podcaster, Josh Horowitz wrote a book in the mid-noughties with up-and-coming Hollywood directors, and one of the most entertaining interviewees was Carnahan.
I have been up and down on his movies - the one I flat-out love is Copshop - but I am always keen to check his stuff out.
The Rip is a solid thriller - it lets out the air at the end, and the further away I get from it, the more I dislike the ending. But up until then, this thing works.
It starts at a gallop, with the world out of balance - a cop murdered by masked gunmen, and our leads under a microscope for presumed corruption.
Even before they have found the titular money, tension is already present.
Once they find the money, the pressure is magnified - while the team are trying to count the money, they also have to prepare for a potential attack by its former owners.
The first half of the film plays like a siege thriller - potential threat on the outside; conflicted loyalties on the inside.
The movie stokes such a level of ambiguity, it almost feels like it is aiming for a critical view of law enforcement.
The cast are great, across the board.
Damon is such a chameleon, he works as the potential threat.
With no need to play likeable, Affleck is great as a supposedly dirty cop - introduced engaged in a tense interrogation that turns out to be a childish squabble with his brother (action star Scott Adkins).
One nice surprise was Sasha Calle. In a movie filled with movie stars and people who should be (Steven Yeun, Kyle Chandler), she holds her own as the civilian who gets caught up in the titular action.
After this and In The Summers, I hope she is going to become a regular presence in movies - I’m being vague because I do not know if that turns out to be movie stardom or some kind of value-added cult figure, but she is really good.
After such a great build, The Rip’s finale cannot help but come off as bland and conventional.
There is a third act reveal that completely turns the film around, smoothing out its wrinkles and contradictions.
It is not fatal but it made the movie far less interesting.
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