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R | 1h 53m | Drama, Action, Crime, Thriller | 2026
Friends since childhood while growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have now appeared in, written, directed, and/or produced 16 movies together.
Their first on-screen pairing was as uncredited extras in the 1989 “Field of Dreams.” They won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1998 for cowriting “Good Will Hunting.”
The pair’s newest offering is “The Rip,” wherein, for writer and director Joe Carnahan, they play Miami-based narcotics agents. Specializing in the action-crime genre, Carnahan has had slightly more hits than misses, with his most notable winners being “Narc” (2002) and “The Grey” (2011).
After a disorienting and largely nonsensical opening salvo, the movie eventually gains its footing and gets moving, albeit at something of a leisurely pace.
The Beagle
On an anonymous tip, Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon), his second-in-command Sergeant JD Byrne (Affleck), and three crew members visit a home in Hialeah, west of Miami. The tip isn’t for drugs but rather $150,000 in cash. This explains why a cash-sniffing beagle is present. At first I thought this was a canard but as it turns out, the whole beagle sniffing for cash thing is real.
The sole occupant of the home is Desi (Sasha Calle), a Colombian woman who feigns surprise and disbelief, but she does so with sincere-ish conviction. She also appears to be the only person living in the entire middle-class cul-de-sac enclave. In short order, the beagle finds the cash, and it’s more than $150,000—a whole lot more.
At this point, the movie starts to resemble both “Serpico” (1973) and “American Gangster” (2007), two other crime thrillers with corrupt cop undertones based on true stories. The opening of the movie includes a title card stating that it, too, is based on a true story, but my research could not confirm this. Yet the intent of all three movies is about the same.
When criminally underpaid law enforcement personnel have the opportunity to likely get away with absconding dirty money, what will they do? In “Serpico” and “American Gangster,” it was one guy facing this conundrum. Here are five people who immediately start sizing each other up to see if they’re on the same page.
This isn’t to say that all of them want to keep the money. It also doesn’t mean they all want to report every last cent they’ve found. At various points, all of them take both sides of the argument, and this is where “The Rip” makes its strongest impression.
What Is a Rip?
It would probably be good to explain the movie’s title. Although Carnahan never offers one, an internet search defined it as law enforcement “taking the bad guy’s stuff” or “ripping” it. As the bad guys are highly unlikely to report the theft of drug money, something made clear halfway through, the title is apropos.
Unlike most movies of this ilk that tend to go overboard with pyrotechnics, Carnahan shows relative restraint here. The first real display of a gunfire exchange doesn’t arrive until after the halfway point. This is practically unheard of in this kind of film. A great deal of the third act overcompensates for this with maybe a tad too much firepower and a blatant defying of the laws of probability and physics.
The wild cards here are Desi, agent Mike Ro (Steven Yeun), and the late-arriving DEA agent Matty Nix (Kyle Chandler). All three could go either way, and their choices and outcomes are not made clear until the final moments.
Without the opening misstep and the third act overkill, “The Rip” could have achieved the same level of greatness as “Serpico” and “American Gangster.”
The Al Pacino character in “Serpico” and Russell Crowe’s in “American Gangster” never once doubted their own core beliefs or sense of right and wrong. They never wavered. They did the Right Thing.
How “The Rip” pans out in the end is a testament to the dedication of our nation’s law enforcement officers. These people aren’t in it for the money. What they actually make defending us is insulting and borders on the laughable. Social influencers on X (Twitter) and TikTok dwarf their salaries. It’s embarrassing.
Compensate these dedicated civil servants for what they’re really worth, or beyond. They guard you and yours in the dead of night and ask for little in return, not even a thank you. Give them a decent salary.
The film begins streaming Jan. 16 on Netflix.
‘The Rip’
Director: Joe Carnahan
Stars: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun, Sasha Calle
Running Time: 1 hour, 53 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: Jan. 16, 2026
Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 5
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