While producing THE RIP, stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck secured bonuses for the crew if the film did well for Netflix. And that’s the nicest thing I can say about THE RIP, an otherwise mess of a movie that’s too convoluted than it needs to be and also falls into the Netflix trap of restating things “three or four times” as Damon recently explained – something the streamer thinks is necessary because so many folks are distracted by their phones.
Whatever happened to just making a great movie that people want to put their phones away for? I would even settle for a pre-movie PSA, similar to what we see in theatres, recommending that the audience at home put their phone on the opposite side of the room and give their attention to a film or show that hundreds of people put their heart and soul into. With millions of creative thinkers in this world, there’s gotta be something better than “let’s overexplain the plot for those not paying attention.” But I digress…
THE RIP is based on a true story, something I didn’t know until I got ready to write this review. I didn’t watch a trailer or read a preview. The only thing I knew going in was that it started with Damon & Affleck, that they’d reportedly made a good deal for the rest of the crew, and that I wanted to support that.
Outside of Damon and Affleck, THE RIP is filled with a great cast, including Oscar nominees Teyena Taylor and Steven Yeun, plus Sasha Calle (THE FLASH) and consistent everyman Kyle Chandler (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, GAME NIGHTS, GODZILLA VS KONG). The setup is intriguing, and some early twists will keep the audience guessing, but then it just nosedives. Every time two characters are together, they explain why they’re there and what they’re doing…even if they’re doing the same thing they were in the previous scene. Then the story takes a twist – who’s lying and who isn’t lying? It doesn’t matter because who you suspect will change from scene to scene as there’s more backstabbing in THE RIP than even the nastiest seasons of SURVIVOR. I appreciate films with good mysteries and plot twists (see the KNIVES OUT trilogy), but this is not that. The film plays into the “cops can’t be trusted” trope so well that when the truth finally comes out, it feels contrived and, honestly, a bit silly.
I thought about giving this review a 😊, if for nothing else, the support the producers and stars are giving to the cast. But when Matt Damon laid out that Netflix needs their shows to overexplain the plot to us, and then this film was guilty of it, it was all over for me. Put your phones away, film fans!
THE RIP is currently streaming on Netflix.