{"id":240534,"date":"2026-01-16T03:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T03:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/240534\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T03:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T03:02:07","slug":"matt-damon-and-ben-affleck-in-netflix-cop-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/240534\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in Netflix Cop Thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWriter-director Joe Carnahan<\/a> bows at the altar of Michael Mann in The Rip, from the foreboding Miami nightscapes to a pulsing synth score by Clinton Shorter that echoes the tense atmosphere of classics like Thief and Heat. That\u2019s not to say this gripping Netflix<\/a> cop thriller is derivative, especially given that Carnahan has his own foundations in the genre, starting with his neo-noir breakthrough, Narc. While his new film doesn\u2019t reshape the mold, an ace cast led by Matt Damon<\/a> and Ben Affleck<\/a> \u2014 who produced under their Artists Equity<\/a> banner \u2014 and twisty plotting that bristles with paranoia and mistrust make it an entertaining watch.<\/p>\n

\n\tInspired by true events, the film kicks off with a prologue in which Miami-Dade narcotics division captain Jackie Velez (Lina Esco) speeds through a rainy night while trying to keep a woman on the other end of the phone calm. She promises to protect her and get her out of a dangerous situation, but before she can reach the distressed woman, Jackie is shot and killed by two men in ski masks. She manages to send one quick text before disposing of her burner phone.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe Rip\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tBrawny and efficient.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRelease date: Friday, Jan. 16
Cast: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Sasha Calle, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Scott Adkins, Kyle Chandler, N\u00e9stor\u00a0Carbonell, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Lina Esco
Director-screenwriter: Joe Carnahan
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRated R,
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1 hour 52 minutes\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe action shifts to police headquarters, where a series of interrogations is underway. Lt. Dane Dumars (Damon), who has been promoted to fill Jackie\u2019s spot, urges his chief, Major Thom Vallejo (Nestor Carbonell), to let his team take charge of the case. But Vallejo, struggling with budget cuts and allegations of corruption in the force, defers to the Feds.<\/p>\n

\n\tDane is suspicious that a cop killing has yielded such a low-key internal investigation, with no task force. This comes as the Violent Criminal Apprehension Team has been shut down, with further job cuts threatened.<\/p>\n

\n\tDane\u2019s old friend and second in command, Det. Sgt. J.D. Byrne (Affleck), shares his suspicions, snarling defensively at insinuations from the Feds that a dirty cop might have been behind Jackie\u2019s murder. J.D.\u2019s involvement is complicated by the badly kept secret of his relationship with Jackie and by heightened friction with one especially aggressive FBI agent, Del (Scott Adkins), who turns out to be his brother.<\/p>\n

\n\tCarnahan and editor Kevin Hale keep the audience on its toes piecing together fragments of background information as they intercut among various interrogations. The Feds also question the rest of the Tactical Narcotics Team: detectives Mike Ro (Steven Yeun<\/a>), Numa Baptiste (Teyana Taylor<\/a>) and Lolo Salazar (Catalina Sandino Moreno<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Later, while the team is unwinding at the end of a shift, Dane shares news of a crime-stopper tip about a cartel stash house in neighboring Hialeah, and despite disgruntlement about a freeze on overtime pay, he musters his colleagues to go investigate.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sniffer dog handled by Lolo starts barking up a storm even before they knock on the door. He then bolts up the stairs as soon as they enter, heading for an attic, which unlike the rest of the cluttered house, is pristine and empty. The sole occupant is a young woman named Desi (Sasha Calle<\/a>), who claims the house belonged to her recently deceased grandmother and says she has never even been in the attic. But once the TNT officers smash through a false wall and find $20 million in cash, her innocence seems a stretch.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat elaborate setup is about as far as a reviewer can go without wading into spoiler territory. But one key factor worth knowing is that Miami-Dade police procedure requires a full count of cash seized from stash houses before the officers leave the scene. That allows time for suspicions to fester and loyalties to be tested, as the amount mentioned on the alleged crime-stopper tip keeps changing, and Dane remains reluctant to phone in their findings to the major.<\/p>\n

\n\tThreatening anonymous calls give them a half-hour to take a cut of the millions and get out of there before people start dying. Desi, handcuffed to a chair, is the most nervous as she slowly reveals what she knows about the other people who make intermittent use of the house.
Two shady-looking cops in a Hialeah patrol car asking questions raises the temperature, as does what appears to be a widening rift between Dane and J.D. Tensions escalate among the team, even before a hailstorm of bullets rains down on them, wounding Lolo; a cartel member is spotted signaling from a nearby house; and former cop turned DEA officer Matty Nix (Kyle Chandler<\/a>) turns up in an armored truck and starts meddling.<\/p>\n

\n\tCarnahan shows skill at bouncing suspicion from one character to another as the destination of the $20 million remains up for debate and the time until the forewarned siege is meant to happen continues shrinking. The plotting gets a bit muddy at times, but the movie keeps sneaky surprises up its sleeve \u2014 including the connection of the case to Jackie\u2019s murder \u2014 while also illuminating unexpected complicity between law enforcement and drug traffickers that blurs the lines as to what qualifies as corruption. The notion of who exactly are the good guys is questioned, perhaps a little too pointedly, in the acronyms tattooed across Dane\u2019s knuckles.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe muscular direction, moody visuals and Shorter\u2019s glowering score keep the action humming, but the real key is the sharply drawn characters of a highly capable cast.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe long friendship and creative collaboration between Damon and Affleck adds history to their onscreen rapport. Dane appears calm and methodical, albeit broken by the end of his marriage and the loss of his 10-year-old son to cancer. J.D. is more of a hothead, his volatile energy constantly threatening to explode. Yeun\u2019s air of gentleness and honesty is put to good, perhaps misdirecting use, as is Chandler\u2019s relaxed manner and mildly folksy affability.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe women disappear from the testosterone-heavy film for a significant stretch, creating an absence. But there\u2019s an understated edge to Taylor and Moreno\u2019s interplay that makes their characters intriguing.<\/p>\n

\n\tCalle \u2014 who made an impression as Supergirl in Andy Muschietti\u2019s unfairly mistreated The Flash<\/a> and appeared in the poetic coming-of-age drama In the Summers<\/a>, which won Sundance\u2019s Grand Jury Prize in 2024 \u2014 walks a shrewd line with her character. Desi has the sullen guardedness of someone who knows not to trust cops and the vulnerability of a woman steadily realizing she\u2019s in over her head.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Rip doesn\u2019t reinvent the cops-in-a-pressure-cooker genre, but its mix of closed-quarters tension, car chases and gunfire gets the job done. Thanks to Carnahan and his accomplished cast, it\u2019s both more convincing and more watchable than the average original streaming movie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Writer-director Joe Carnahan bows at the altar of Michael Mann in The Rip, from the foreboding Miami nightscapes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[88538,8128,129458,146,85,46,106338,66934,71561,397,400,129459,129460,6621],"class_list":{"0":"post-240534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-artists-equity","9":"tag-ben-affleck","10":"tag-catalina-sandino-moreno","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-joe-carnahan","15":"tag-kyle-chandler","16":"tag-matt-damon","17":"tag-movies","18":"tag-netflix","19":"tag-sasha-calle","20":"tag-steven-yeun","21":"tag-teyana-taylor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}