"The Rip" 4K Review

 Usually the weekly Netflix Original movies are forgettable piffles that are watched then forgotten in the maw of content which is Netflix, but occasionally they produce something that they should've put in theaters to make money before parking them online. Even though it was bad, The Electric State looked like something that should be seen on a big screen; while I wasn't a huge fan, Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein would've made bank; K-Pop Demon Hunters is such a phenomenon that it made $19M when released for a one-off weekend two months AFTER it began running on Netflix. This is why there is much consternation over Netflix's bid to buy Warner Bros. because they will likely kill off movie theaters by only doing a couple of weeks theatrically before sending it to streaming limbo.

The reason for the preamble is that this week's offering, The Rip, is the kind of lean and mean crime thriller which used to be standard star-driven theatrical fare before the movie business bifurcated into now-burned-out comic book movies, horror flicks, and stuff no one sees by gets awards. 

It opens with Miami Police Captain Jackie Velez (Lina Esco) on the phone with an informant. After she parks, she comes under fire by two masked assailants. Wounded, she frantically texts something to someone before being executed. We then meet the rest of her Tactical Narcotics Team (TNT) unit as they're interrogated by Internal Affairs with lots of innuendo about crooked cops and scandals in the department.

Later, her second-in-command, Lt. Dane Dumars (Matt Damon), is shown looking at a text message about a big cartel stash in neighboring Hialeah and he rounds up the TNT unit's detectives - Sergeant JD Byrne (Ben Affleck), Mike Ro (Steven Yeun), Numa Baptiste (Teyana Taylor), Lolo Salazar (Catalina Sandino Moreno) - telling them they got a Crimestoppers tip.

When they reach the location on a cul de sac, they cajole the young woman who answers the door, Desi (Sasha Calle), into letting them search the house. She says it was her grandmother's who passed away a few months earlier and it appears to be packed with lots of old junk, but the money-sniffing dog (which is a real thing despite the missus disbelieving) goes nuts at the trapdoor to the attic. There they find a pristine empty room with a little shrine on the end. They quickly discover that behind the shrine wall are a bunch of buckets packed with bundles of cash. A quick guesstimate figures the "rip" to be $20 million.

Dane immediately confiscates everyone's phones and orders that no one radio in to report the find. They will count the money there at the site before bringing it in. This immediately sparks concerns as everyone starts acting squirrely, suspecting each other's motives. Things begin to escalate when a local police car pulls up acting suspiciously, one of the team is using a secreted burner phone to contact someone, and then someone calls the house warning that they have 30 minutes to take what they want and vacate the scene or else people will start dying.

Directed and co-written by Joe Carnahan (Narc, The Grey), it plays into his reputation for crackling characterizations and gunplay. He ratchets the tension up by giving us reasons to suspect people like how Dane told everyone on the team a different amount the tip reported and how he had medical bills from his young son dying of cancer. JD was in a relationship with Jackie. Lolo and Numa are counting the money and joking about taking just a small bundle. Then the bullets begin to fly and they don't know who's shooting at them.

When the big reveals come, it makes sense but then the last 10 minutes are oddly flat and beg questions like shouldn't they be getting treated for those gunshot wounds and being debriefed for many hours as to what just happened instead of watching the sunrise?

Usually the A/V presentation on Netflix movies isn't much to write home about even though almost all content is in 4K Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos sound, albeit restricted to those paying for the highest-priced (currently $25/mo) tier, but The Rip makes the spend worth it. Mostly set at night, the HDR makes gun muzzle flashes, flashlights, headlights, lights in general pop very brightly on a good TV. The Atmos height channels are use to terrific effect in the scene where they're interrogation X while the team is sledgehammering in the attic above them. I have a 5.2.4 Atmos setup and this is an excellent showcase for the effect.

While not perfect, The Rip is a well-above-average movie which stands above much of what Netflix puts out. If you're paying for the top price tier and have a capable home theater setup, it's even better.

Score: 8.5/10. Catch it on Netflix.