The Rip - Dirty Money: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in a no-frills action thriller

The T.N.T. – or Tactical Narcotics Team, a special unit of the American police specializing in the fight against drug trafficking and dealing – is under scrutiny. Their leader, Captain Jackie Velez, is cold-bloodedly murdered by a mysterious assassin. Before dying, she manages to send a final message, indicating a house as the location of a “big rip,” a cash stash linked to local drug trafficking. Everyone is a potential suspect in her death, even her own teammates, potentially corrupt: rumors are circulating that some police officers are exploiting confidential information for personal profit.

In The Rip – Dirty Money, the story centers on the two most respected agents of the T.N.T., friends and colleagues for years: Lieutenant Dane Dumars and Detective Sergeant JD Byrne. After the chief's murder, Dane effectively takes command of the squad, while JD remains his right-hand man. Both are understandably furious: Dane for the years of shared work, JD for the romantic relationship he had with the victim, never entirely hidden in the office. Yet they too come under the scrutiny of federal agents, especially in the eyes of two FBI agents called to investigate. But the worst is yet to come, and when the team finds itself dealing with the discovery of millions of dollars hidden in an attic, the result of criminal activities, internal trust begins to crumble and the danger inevitably increases.

The Rip: Tell Me the Truth

What a joy when films like The Rip – Dirty Money come out, titles that unashamedly look to classic genre cinema, the kind made for the big screen and not for the fragmented home viewing that too often clogs streaming platforms. We are, in fact, faced with an attempt to revive that “adult” action cinema that once dominated multiplex box offices and now seems relegated to the margins, replaced by increasingly anonymous and interchangeable digital spectacles.

Almost two hours of viewing for a rock-solid action-thriller, in which a team of Miami police officers stumbles upon an unexpected haul, a stash that would tempt anyone and capable of jeopardizing the ethics of even the most upright, initiating a tense showdown among the members of the same team, already shaken by recent loss and the suspicion that a traitor and murderer is hiding among them. The title itself The Rip is, in Miami police jargon, the term for the act of seizing illegal assets during an operation, be it drugs, weapons, or cash. But here it takes on a dual meaning: it's not just about confiscating or not confiscating the drug traffickers' loot, but rather the tear – a literal translation – the irreparable rift that is created within the group.

Joe Carnahan, who in his career has alternated excellent works like Narc (2002) and Smokin’ Aces (2006) with more anonymous action movies, wastes no time in declaring his influences: The Rip bows at the altar of Michael Mann with a devotion that on several occasions borders on explicit homage. And he does so with a style that doesn't ape the master, but finds its own identity in managing tense dynamics, also winking at another great cult film of the genre like Training Day (2001).

A Relentless Narrative

The meticulous construction of suspense comes through direction that favors close-ups and compressed spaces, with that house targeted by larger forces embodying the best tradition of urban police procedurals. An amiably nervous verve characterizes the evolution of a story that thrives on the disintegration and subsequent recomposition of relationships between characters, amidst alleged betrayals, well-intentioned deceptions, and unexpected revelations that keep you on the edge of your seat until a highly emotional showdown, embellished by action scenes of remarkable quality, artisanal enough in an era dominated by digital interventionism.

The presence in the two main roles of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who bring the weight of years and lived experiences to the screen, can count on the natural alchemy given by their long friendship – which began in school and was consecrated by their Oscar win for the screenplay of Good Will Hunting (1997) – which here becomes a dramaturgical tool of extraordinary effectiveness, constantly fueling the optics of doubt.

The rest of the ensemble cast, from Steven Yeun to Teyana Taylor (recently awarded a Golden Globe for A Thousand and One), passing through Sasha Calle and veteran Catalina Sandino Moreno, forms a supporting cast worthy of the project's ambitions, although it must be said that the female figures tend to disappear from the narrative for long stretches, relegated to secondary roles in a story dominated by pure, unadulterated testosterone, in which action star Scott Adkins also gets to make his mark in a crucial supporting role.

The Rip - Dirty Money is a film that pulls no punches and proceeds straight as a train, anchored to a healthy idea of genre cinema that doesn't succumb to trends, with the intent of telling a story rich in twists and cliffhangers but at the same time intuitive and immediate, capable of saying and giving everything without resorting to unnecessary lengthy passages or drowning in rhetoric.