The Rip (2026)

The Rip (2026)
netflix.com

The new action/thriller Netflix film, The Rip, is a ripping good time. The film starts with a murder of a Miami police captain, and from there the film just keeps ramping up and it never slows down. After her murder, we see cops Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in their daily job. Damon gets a tip of some drug money at a house, so he rounds up a team to find the money.

They find the money, but it’s way more money than they were tipped. We’re talking two million dollars, that, thanks to no paper work trail, no one, except the cop team knew about this money. So it sets up this suspicion that one or two cops are going to turn dirty and steal the money for themselves. It gets super intense, because I really didn’t know who was on the take and who wasn’t. Everyone on the team had some sort of motive to kill everyone and take the two million.

By the time the third act of the film kicks in, and you were told exactly what’s happening … and it suddenly made sense, I really love it. I didn’t see it coming, and, to me, for a crime thriller, if you can fool me and I didn’t guess the ending, then you did a great job in telling the story.

Despite Ben Affleck and Matt Damon saying that the writing for Netflix, dumbs down the plot (since they know people are going to be on their phone and may not be paying attention), I didn’t think that was the case with The Rip. Of course, that’s just me, I’m sure some people would watch it and complain about how dumb the plot is. Not me, I found it riveting.

If you like action film, if you like crime drama, and if you have Netflix, I highly recommend this film.

All the Devils Are Here (2025)

All the Devils Are Here (2025)
paramountmovies.com

The film starts off with a robbery that goes sideways. We are quickly establishing the three criminals. We have the experienced aging veteran, level headed leader, played by Eddie Marsan. We have the violate aggressive criminal, who is ready to murder anyone if they look at him wrong. We have the inexperience young driver. After fleeing the crime scene, their employer arranged for them to be picked up by this kooky “Numbers” character, who takes them to hole up in this hideaway house. The four of them are to stay there until further notice.

I would have never guessed this was an American-made movie, as all the actors and location were filmed in England. Even the cars they are driving on the wrong side, so I just assumed it was a British drama. This is a low-budget movie, so they rely heavily on the writing and acting to carry the film. You have to understand, once they’re at the house, it is pretty much all dialogue and interactions so you get a better understand of all the characters and their motivations.

Throughout the film, you see flashbacks with meeting with a manager for the ultimate boss, Mr Reynolds. He has pep talk with each of the characters, and why they were selected to work on this robbery. For example, you found out that the young driver, well this was his first gig. Even if we weren’t told this directly, you can just pick up on the acting and dialogue that he was truly inexperience. The leader of the group tells the driver that after this job is over, that he should get out of this line of work.

On the seventh day, we are introduced to a fifth character in this story – a girl called “C”. C is played by Suki Waterhouse, and she certainly stands out with her beauty and blonde hair. You have to understand that the entire film is with these ugly, dark, and gritty criminals, and suddenly it was just a breath of fresh air to see Suki. The few minutes we see her, it felt like they were setting something up. Anyway, she’s been sent by the boss to see what they need and she’ll pick up supplies for the boys in the house (since they were instructed to not leave the house under any circumstances).

As they wait for C to return, the violent criminal (Grady) has a plan to rape C, take his share of the money and leave. That’s when our man (Ronnie) knocks him out and tied him up in a chair. It’s not long before he takes an alliance with the young driver and the two of them takes out Numbers and steals the money.

I did like the twist in the ending, but once you find out ultimately what this whole thing is all about, I have to admit, I’ll probably never re-watch this film again. It’s not to say that it’s a bad film, but all the 90 minutes we watched didn’t really matter. I will say that it was griping enough that it kept my interest throughout the film.

I have to say that I also love the music choices. I think all the songs they used were Cilla Black songs. I don’t know a whole lot about her, but I know that she was one of the reasons why The Smiths broke up. You see, during the very last Smiths recording, Morrissey wanted the band to cover Black’s “Work is a Four Letter Word”, and I guess Johnny Marr absolutely hated the song. Pretty much Cilla Black broke up the Smiths. Having said that, I did really like hearing Black’s songs in All the Devils Are Here, that I will try and see if I can find her album in a used CD store or something.