Directed by Joe Carnahan — Screenplay by Joe Carnahan.
We’re only a few weeks into the new year, and we already have a freshly made and relatively high-profile action thriller to feast on. That high-profile feature is Netflix’s The Rip, which brings together famous friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in a film built around drug money, dirty cops, and snitches. The Rip, from The Grey-filmmaker Joe Carnahan (who, in recent years, has been making plenty of B-movie action films), is the first 2026 film that I am reviewing, and it also happens to be the first 2026 film that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s not high art, but it is exactly the kind of straight-to-streaming action thriller star-vehicle that you would want to chew on in January.
Joe Carnahan’s The Rip, which is, apparently, inspired by a true story, takes place shortly after the murder of a high-ranking Captain of the Miami-Dade Police Department. With rumors of crooked cops swirling, some eyes look toward the Tactical Narcotics Team led by Lieutenant Dane Dumars (played by Matt Damon) and Detective Sergeant JD Byrne (played by Ben Affleck). To figure out if anyone, and indeed who, on the TNT task force may, in fact, be dirty, Dane acts on a secret tip about drug money in Hialeah. Once there, their initial investigation uncovers much more money than was initially presumed, thus leading to high-tension confrontations and colleagues questioning each other’s motives.
As was intimated earlier in my review, Carnahan is a veteran of a certain kind of action film, and the writer-director turns in solid albeit familiar work here. There are so many elements here that you’ve seen so many times before in other crime thrillers, and yet Carnahan and his team find good ways to elevate it, including with the way the framing and composition emphasize core themes (e.g., Damon and Affleck standing next to mirrors to emphasize a visual doubling, thus leading one to ask oneself whether they’re being upfront about their true intentions). The action is competent, though there are shaky moments found here and there.
It also has to be said that the structure is somewhat clunky in the first act (perhaps in an effort to frontload certain eye-catching elements), and that the screenplay doesn’t give a lot to work with for the film’s key supporting players. That last issue is especially glaring given how overqualified the entire cast is here. At the heart of the film are, obviously, Boston’s most famous filmmaking friends, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, both of whom elevate the film considerably. Affleck is particularly well-suited for this film, but Damon is also quite entertaining to watch. Having Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Sasha Calle, Scott Adkins, and Kyle Chandler also be present is a real treat, even if they’re all playing relatively one-note characters.
Ultimately, while Joe Carnahan’s The Rip is unlikely to be remembered at the end of the year as a true highlight, it is a very entertaining watch for its competent, tension-filled action-crime thriller elements and its extremely overqualified cast. It’s got both a great ticking clock element and twisty developments, and it utilizes the film’s central duo quite well. In lesser hands, it could’ve just been a disposable crime flick, but, as it is, it is a nice January surprise.
7 out of 10
– Review written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 