The Rip

Plot

When the Police Captain of the dedicated Tactical Narcotics Team (TNT) team (actually it’s just TNT) of Miami Metro is murdered, her team comprised of her Lt Dane Dumars, Seargeant JD Byrne, as well as Detectives Mike Ro, Numa Baptiste and Lolo Salazar vow to find out ‘who-dunnit’.

When a ‘last’ tip from her, leads them to a house. In it they find young Desi, who moved in to care for her Grandmother before she passed.

They discover over $20m hidden inside – owned by a drug cartel. With hours before the cartel arrive to take hold of the money, Dumars must try to work out how to get the money out there safely. Or is he planning on taking some of the money for himself??

Or… is one of his team??

Direction/Cinematography

Directed by Joe Carnahan, who is famous for such movies as The Grey, Boss Level and Smokin Aces.

Cinematography is by Juanmi Azpiroz.

Cast/Characters

Matt Damon plays Dumars, Ben Affleck plays Byrne (this is their 13th film together too!), Steven Yeun plays Ro, Scott Adkins plays Byrne’s brother, FBI agent Del Byrne, and Kyle Chandler plays Matty Nix, the DEA agent who is good friends with Dumars and Byrne.

Other cast are Teyana Talor (as Baptiste) , Catalina Moreno (as Salazar, and Sasha Calle as Desi.

Breakdown

Starting with an intense opening, where we meet the captain of TNT – she is then attacked (and attacks back), but is killed by two masked men (not before sending off a message to her second in command Dumars.

Dumars, acting on her tip, takes his team to a house in the middle of a deserted neighbourhood, where they meet Desi, who is living in her late grandmothers house. On inspection, they find dozens of barrels each filled with at least a million dollars – clearly belonging to the cartel.

As tensions rise, they are warned to leave the house within the hour. Wondering who is coming for the money, and who among them if any, is wanting a piece of it for themselves.

The writing, as the members turn on each other, and question each others integrity. Are the good guys really the good guys?

At times we truly believe certain members are not all as they seem, but when the big reveal in the third act occurs, it will leave you gobsmacked.

The colouring is always un-natural with yellows and greens, which helps with the feeling of unease of the characters – and is also necessary due to the bulk of the film taking place at night time.

The performances, especially by Damon and Affleck are some of the best they have done. Affleck hasn’t traditionally been a strong performer, as much as he tries. Here he is on point, but it is Damon who delivers the most.

The writing, from the opening gunfight, to the entire time at the house, to the final ‘duel’ antagonist v protagonist show down is great, and gives you a shock when you discover who exactly is after the money. My only complaint about the screenplay is the constant use of the ‘c’ word. America, you just don’t know how to use it!

Overall

Some great visuals, with the use of un-natural colouring, top tier performances from Damon and Affleck – and a near perfect screenplay – this was a well written cop drama that will leave you guessing until the third act!

Please check out my Podcast on this film, where Ant and I discuss further.

4.5/5

Please check out our Podcast where we discuss this one.