The Rip: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's new Netflix thriller is perfect for His and Hers fans
The Rip is the one movie you should be watching on streaming this weekend
The Rip is guaranteed to be Netflix’s number one movie this weekend, and if you’re weighing up whether or not to watch it, let us convince you.
January has already delivered one of the best Netflix series in recent memory. No, not Run Away or Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials: His and Hers.
The six-part series has dominated the streaming platform’s top 10 chart since it dropped, with viewers still reeling from its jaw-dropping twist.
Everyone will be watching The Traitors tonight, but what about after? Well, Netflix’s The Rip should be at the top of your list.
What is The Rip about?
The Rip, a new action thriller directed by Joe Carnahan (The Grey, The A-Team), follows a group of cops in Miami who find more than $20 million in a stash house.
As the synopsis teases, “trust among the team begins to fray”.
“As outside forces learn about the size of the seizure, everything is called into question – including who they can rely on,” it adds.
It poses a question to the characters, as well as the audience. Would you take the money, or at least some of it, if you thought you could get away with it?
As star and producer Matt Damon told Netflix, Miami police officers have to count the money on-site when they seize illicit money. What if they only counted $15 million and kept $5 million for themselves?
It’s inspired by a true story
The Rip is a fictional movie, so don’t expect to look up its characters names and find reports about a real-life story.
However, it is based on a “deeply personal experience” that Carnahan’s friend went through, “both as a father and as head of tactical narcotics” for the Miami police.
“It’s inspired in part by his life and then, by my enduring love for those classic ‘70’s cop thrillers that really valued the character and interpersonal relationships and became touchstones of that era – films like Serpico and Prince of The City and more recently, Michael Mann’s Heat,” he explained.
Who’s in The Rip cast?
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck head up The Rip cast, playing Lieutenant Dane Dumars and Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne respectively.
Not only are Damon and Affleck two of the biggest stars in Hollywood, but their friendship has yielded some extraordinary work.
They won their first Oscars together for writing Good Will Hunting, and they’ve both achieved near-equal levels of enormous fame and acclaim throughout their careers.
“You’ve got these two guys who have both been world-famous for over 30 years with a wonderful sense of friendship and brotherhood… those guys are just so gifted and lovely and talented and open,” Carnahan said.
Full cast and characters
The Rip cast also includes:
- Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) as Detective Mike Ro
- Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another) as Detective Numa Baptiste
- Sasha Calle (The Flash) as Desi
- Catalina Sandino Moreno (The Affair) as Detective Lolo Salazar
- Scott Adkins (John Wick: Chapter 4) as FBI Agent Del Byrne
- Kyle Chandler (The Wolf of Wall Street) as DEA Agent Mateo ‘Matty’ Nix
- Néstor Carbonell (Lost) as Major Thom Vallejo
- Lina Esco (S.W.A.T.) as Captain Jackie Velez
The Rip reviews and Rotten Tomatoes score
The Rip currently has an 89% Rotten Tomatoes score, and that’s with 35 reviews. In short, it’s well-liked by most critics who’ve watched it so far.
For example, RogerEbert.com gave it three out of four stars, noting that it’s “so much better than most streaming original action films that no one will mind” its flaws.
THR also wrote that while it “doesn’t reinvent the cops-in-a-pressure-cooker genre… its mix of closed-quarters tension, car chases and gunfire gets the job done”.
How long is it?
The Rip has a 112-minute (1 hour 52 minutes) runtime.
So, if you’re trying to convince someone who groans every time a film goes over two hours (even though they probably watched all of His and Hers in one four-and-a-half-hour binge), start there.
Read more: The best Netflix films you should watch right now
