REVIEW: The Rip

I wouldn’t call myself Joe Carnahan’s biggest fan, but after revisiting his filmography a while back, I’ve grown to appreciate what he does well. At his best, Carnahan has a knack for staging action in a way that feels energetic and propulsive, as seen in Boss Level and Copshop, and he’s also capable of building genuine tension and atmosphere, particularly in The Grey. Going into this film, my expectations were fairly modest. I knew it reunited longtime friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck on screen and that the story revolved around money, power, and corruption. On that level, the film largely delivers.

Carnahan once again proves effective at generating suspense, crafting an atmosphere of paranoia where alliances are constantly in question and motivations remain murky. The story operates firmly in moral gray zones, where nothing is quite what it seems and trust is always provisional. Visually, the film is solid, with especially notable lighting choices that give many scenes a hazy, almost jaundiced look. That aesthetic won’t work for everyone, particularly those averse to heavy yellow lighting, but it does contribute to the film’s uneasy tone. Carnahan’s handling of action remains a strong point, even if it’s deployed more sparingly than expected.

The score does much of the heavy lifting when it comes to tension, effectively reinforcing the film’s sense of unease, though the music itself is fairly generic and could easily be swapped with countless other thriller scores without much loss. Performance-wise, the cast is uniformly competent, if rarely pushed beyond their comfort zones. Damon and Affleck’s chemistry is the film’s backbone, and unsurprisingly, it works. Their dynamic is central to the story’s appeal, particularly because the film keeps the audience guessing about where their loyalties truly lie. That uncertainty makes their characters more engaging than they might otherwise be.

The supporting cast does solid work with limited material, fulfilling their roles without leaving a particularly strong impression. Scott Adkins’ appearance was a genuine surprise, and while it’s fun to see him pop up, his role is disappointingly slight. Given his skill set, it feels like a missed opportunity not to give him at least one memorable action beat.

Ultimately, while the film is competently made and never outright boring, it doesn’t fully live up to its potential. I went in hoping for a tightly wound thriller with sustained tension and frequent bursts of strong action, but what we get instead is a largely talkative film with only brief, sporadic action sequences, most of them concentrated in the final act. Carnahan has shown he can handle dialogue-driven drama effectively, but here it often feels weightless, offering more setup than payoff. The result is a film that’s mildly entertaining but ultimately forgettable—perfectly serviceable for a lazy Sunday watch, but not much more than that.