Movies like The Rip used to be twice as good at half the cost. When streamers like Netflix decide to dip their toe in these mid-budget genre waters, it becomes readily apparent that so much money needs to be spent simply convincing the talent to participate that there isn’t much left to produce something resembling good filmmaking or a coherent story. The Rip isn’t a disaster on the level of other Netflix action films, like Russo Brothers films The Gray Man or The Electric State, and that’s probably the result of being produced by its two stars, and super friends, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The duo won Oscars for writing Good Will Hunting in 1998, and ever since then their frequent personal and professional collaboration has been a fascinating study in professional friendship; frankly more fascinating than anything within The Rip. 

Daffleck’s production company, Artists Equity, produced this film with Netflix, and made some news when they convinced the notoriously stringent streamer to bend to their rules. This meant that Netflix would have to compensate all talent and crew who worked on The Rip if the film performed well on the platform, the kind of deal that all streamers tend to blanche at. The noble quest of Artists Equity has yet to produce anything truly substantial. Their first film, the Affleck-directed and Damon-starring Air, is still probably the best movie to come out of the company. It’s mostly been a a tool for producing low-rent genre films and producing vanity projects for Affleck’s ex-wife, Jennifer Lopez. (Notable exception? The quietly heartbreaking Small Things Like These adaptation starring Cillian Murphy. But that movie went mostly unseen despite its quality.)

Once again, I’m talking about things that are more interesting than the film itself. The Rip is a cop drama that takes place within a drug enforcement squad that is currently in hot water after their captain (Lina Esco) is shot dead. The common wisdom is that it was some kind of inside job, from someone within her team who was spooked by what she was uncovering. That team includes Lieutenant Dan Dumars (Damon) and Detective Seargeant J.D. Byrne (Affleck), as well as Detectives Baptiste (Teyana Taylor), Ro (Steven Yeun), and Salazar (Catalina Sandino Moreno). As internal affairs and the FBI investigate their captain’s murder, Lt. Dumars decides the best way to make things right is to target a “rip”, or a stash house for a cartel. They get a tip about one in Hialeah, Florida, where only a young girl named Desi (Sasha Calle) stands in the way between the team and a $150 thousand haul. Once they arrive at the house, though, the stash is way bigger than expected, in the millions. This triggers distrust and paranoia amongst the group. Is this one person’s attempt to score before their corruption is fully uncovered?

This is a one-night drama where the script (by director Joe Carnahan, developed with Michael McGrale) tries hard to manufacture drama amongst our group of dubious officers. As the night drags on, layers of duplicity reveal themselves. I wouldn’t exactly call this screenplay “predictable”, but Carnahan’s plodding, uninspired direction doesn’t exactly lead to emotional investment. You’re expecting the twist from the opening moments, which is almost as bad as knowing what the twist is. Worst of all, this has the same low energy filmmaking of another Matt Damon-starring Artists Equity production, The Instigators, which barely qualified as a real movie. This company’s equality-minded ethos is admirable, but it’d also be nice if it produced actual good movies. Perhaps the mainstream industry is unwilling to spare real creative talent for such a utopian production style. Either way, The Rip isn’t terrible but it’s got the cynical Netflix stench of a movie produced as a second-screen experience. In essence, it’s made to not be paid attention to – and it shows.

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Directed by Joe Carnahan