Damon and Affleck team up for Netflix's 'The Rip'

The boys are back together again. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck team up once again to bring us a searing and suspenseful crime drama. "The Rip" is the biggest surprise of the year so far and can be found only on Netflix. The movie opens with Miami Police Captain Jackie Velez (Lina Esco) walking through a fog-shrouded parking lot in the dead of night. A shot booms from out of the darkness, finding its target. Velez is hit, but she refuses to go down easily. As she returns fire Velez types out a message on her phone and hits send before tossing the phone into the bay. Two shotgun wielding attackers appear and finish the job. The FBI is investigating the murder, though they are getting nowhere. The only lead they have is that it was an inside job, that someone in the Miami PD is involved. Corruption is present in every large city, and Miami is no different. Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon) leads the Tactical Narcotics Team now that his commanding officer was murdered. The team is made up of Sergeant J.D. Byrne (Affleck), Detective Numa Baptiste (Teyana Taylor), Detective Mike Ro (Steven Yeun), and Detective Lolo Salazar (Catalina Sandino Moreno). They all roll out when Dane gets a crime stopper tip about a drug house in Hialeah with a significant amount of cash. When they arrive at the house only a young woman is home. Desi (Sasha Calle) allows them to search the house, but claims there's nothing illegal there. This statement is dispelled by Wilbur the cash-sniffing beagle when he finds literal buckets of cash – over $20 million. Dane immediately takes everyone's phone, cutting off all contact with the outside world. With the murder of Captain Velez and all the corruption rumors swirling about, Dane doesn't know who he can trust. But can his team trust Dane? He acts strangely, refusing to notify his superiors of the giant rip they have fallen into. I'm a big fan of Matt Damon. Not everything he does is great, but he has many more hits than misses. When he teams up with best friend Ben Affleck the chances of success are even higher. I expected this to be decent entertainment, but it was fantastic. "The Rip" is a crime drama, an action thriller. It's about a group of cops, some of whom may be dirty, tempted by a rip of $20 million in drug money. There's gun fire, fist fights and car chases, the whole nine yards that you would expect from such a movie. And every bit of it is well done. Where the movie really takes off, where it reaches a new level of quality entertainment, is in the personal interactions between the members of the team. About an hour into the movie you realize you are not only in an action movie, but you are in the middle of an unpredictable whodunit. This realization immediately ramped up my joy. Each minute adds a new layer of intrigue, a new person to suspect or exonerate. By the end of the film every person on the team is under suspicion at one time or another. It's virtually impossible to know who are the heroes and who are the villains. The writing is superb. "The Rip" boasts an impressive cast. Damon and Affleck are Damon and Affleck. They are known quantities and you get exactly what you expect from them. Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Sasha Calle are all believable as either innocent or guilty. Kyle Chandler makes an appearance as a DEA agent. And Wilbur the money-sniffing beagle was my favorite of them all. From beginning to end the film crackles with tension and intrigue. Each member of the team and Desi are on edge for the duration. Nearly all the action takes place in and around the drug house over the course of one interminable night. The movie grabs your attention and doesn't let go until the credits roll. The year is young with many highly anticipated movies yet to be released, but I feel confident that come December "The Rip" will be on my Top Ten list. Grade: A+Rated R for violence and pervasive language.•••Bradley Griffith is a local attorney and longtime film buff. ••• Watch a trailer for "The Rip" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeR5bcbRPak.