The Rip
January 15th, 2026
MOVIE: THE RIP
STARRING: MATT DAMON, BEN AFFLECK, STEVEN YEUN, TEYANA TAYLOR
DIRECTED BY: JOE CARNAHAN
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 3 STARS (Out of 4)
RATED: R
RUN TIME: 133 MINUTES
The friendship between Matt Damon and Ben Affleck has been one of Hollywood’s great constants. The two Boston natives rose to stardom together, winning an Oscar for Good Will Hunting, later reuniting in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, and bringing crowd-pleasing magic to the screen with Air. Watching these two work together simply feels right. Their newest venture, The Rip, is a gritty cop-heist drama from rugged director Joe Carnahan, pitting a crew of narcotics officers against the cartels—and each other. The result is a hard-hitting thriller where greed and loyalty push Miami cops to the brink. The Rip is what I like to call “kick-ass cinema.”
Carnahan, who co-wrote the film with Michael McGrale, wastes no time setting the stage. Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon) and Detective Sergeant JD Byrne (Affleck) are being questioned by federal agents- one played by Scott Adkins- about the murder of their former lieutenant (Lina Esco). The rest of their crew includes Detective Mike Ro (Steven Yeun), the sharp-tongued Numa Baptiste (Teyana Taylor), and dog handler Lolo Salazar (Catalina Sandino Moreno). When Dumars receives a tip about a cartel stash house, the team arrives expecting a major bust. Instead, they find danger- and temptation.
Each character brings a distinct personality to the table, with Carnahan wisely leaning into familiar archetypes. Damon plays the calm but quietly shady leader, while Affleck portrays the perpetually pissed-off hothead, with the others revealing themselves gradually. What truly makes The Rip work is the tension that builds once the crew enters the house. The only person inside is a woman named Desi (Sasha Calle), and as the search deepens- more rooms, more questions- the pressure mounts. When large piles of money are involved, everyone becomes a potential hero or villain.
Like a game of Clue, Carnahan’s skill lies in assembling the players and giving them just enough suspicious dialogue to keep you hanging on every word. Later, Kyle Chandler’s mysterious DEA agent becomes the wild card, his arrival throwing gasoline on an already raging fire. The only real misstep is that Carnahan doesn’t fully trust his audience. In the third act, when the lines between good and bad are drawn, the film spoon-feeds its revelations instead of letting them unfold naturally. Even so, it hardly matters- watching Affleck and Damon go toe-to-toe is simply too much fun.
The Rip is my kind of movie: a sweaty cop drama in the vein of Training Day, Sicario, and Heat, but with a tighter, more contained sense of tension. At its core is a moral tale about temptation, loyalty, and the question of who you can trust. It’s Affleck and Damon doing what they do best- two gritty guys making a gritty movie. That kind of stuff always rips.
3 STARS
THE RIP IS PLAYING ON NETFLIX FRIDAY, JANUARY 16TH, 2026.
Written by: Leo Brady
