The Rip is solid genre fare built for streaming up

The Rip is solid genre fare built for streaming up

In another era, The Rip might have been the kind of mid-budget, star-driven thriller that opened wide, played for a few steady weeks, and then quietly disappeared into cable rotation.  Today, it’s something else entirely: a calculated swing for streaming relevance from two of Hollywood ’s most durable brands, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck . On its own terms, The Rip works well enough.  It hits the expected beats, moves at a professional clip, and delivers the kind of competent genre storytelling that used to be the backbone of studio slates.  There are tense confrontations, familiar moral dilemmas, and just enough character shading to keep the machinery humming.  Nothing here reinvents the form, but nothing embarrasses it either. That’s the point. What’s changed isn’t the movie—it’s the ecosystem around it. For Damon and Affleck, The Rip feels less like a prestige play and more like a strategic one.  In the current streaming economy , “fine” can be more valuable than “great.”  Platforms don’t necess…