THE RIP

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This thriller is one of those nightmarish films that give the impression that modern urban America is a hellscape.  Most of the action takes place in a suburban house on a street all of which seems to have been bought up by a Colombian drug cartel, and despite almost all of the characters being law enforcement officers several of them are corrupt or corrupt-adjacent.  

There’s some unnecessary and unexceptional action tacked on at the very end, but before that I enjoyed a story which was tense and which kept me guessing.

A police crew get a routine tip-off about a house but when they arrive they discover some $20million.  Straightaway Lieutenant Dumars (Matt Damon) behaves suspiciously by not informing HQ of the discovery.  Is he thinking of nabbing most of the drug money?  And if so will his crew back him?  

Well, the two female officers who get the job of counting the cash certainly seem up for the idea.  On the other hand Detective Sergeant Byrne (Ben Affleck) is not cool with the idea, leading to tension between him and Dumars.  

And then there’s the somewhat enigmatic figure of Detective Ro, who seems to have a hidden agenda, maybe snitching to the bosses.

Also muddying the water is the murder of Dumas'  predecessor who we see murdered in an opening scene.  Is it possible that Dumars is so dirty that he murdered her?  There's also a question as to whether he ever received a tip-off in the first place, or what exactly it said. 

Seeing how this all gets resolved made for a satisfying watch, although it was disappointing that the two female cops don’t get to do much and literally get left at the roadside once the action kicks in.  

RATING: ✓ Cheers

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