RIP (2026) – JiCanWin.com Review
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5 – and I’m being nice)
Director / Writer: Joe Carnahan
Starring: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Scott Adkins, Sasha Calle
Review
These are the hardest reviews to write — the ones where you wanted to love everything… and almost did.
Because let’s be real: this cast is insane. Damon and Affleck back together, Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Scott Adkins, Sasha Calle — and the fact that this is dropping on Netflix is both amazing and devastating at the same time. Amazing because it’s accessible. Devastating because watching this on a big screen — IMAX especially — would’ve been absolutely wild.
From the first second, everything is upside down. And I mean that in the best way. The film throws you off balance immediately and keeps that energy all the way through. I loved that. That sense of disorientation, moral rot, dirty systems — at times this felt like it was playing in the same league as Training Day, Street Kings, The Departed, some real top-tier dirty cop cinema.
But here’s where it stumbles.
The film doesn’t trust you.
It keeps stopping to re-explain what’s happening, like it’s terrified you’re not paying attention — and yeah, I get it, it’s 2026 and everyone’s on their phone while watching movies. But when the film starts hand-holding this hard, it disrespects the artform a little. If someone misses something because they weren’t locked in, that’s on them — not the movie.
And that’s the frustrating part, because when this thing is firing, it’s magical.
One of the real standouts for me was the editing, especially early on. It’s elite. The way it pulls you from one direction to another, constantly increasing that unbalanced, confused feeling — that was Carnahan and his collaborators really cooking. But as we move into the second and third act, the editing takes a back seat and the plot starts unraveling itself out loud instead of letting us sit in the chaos.
I almost don’t even want to talk about the cast itself. What can you really say when you’re being led by the real-life dynamic duo Damon and Affleck, backed by a Justice League–level supporting cast! On paper, this should’ve been a dark horse classic coming out in January.
And look — I don’t have hard evidence, but it feels like Netflix studio notes might’ve sanded the edges off something that could’ve been legendary.
That said? This is still one of the best Netflix films I’ve watched.
And more importantly — this is the direction I want my Netflix subscription going in. More ambition. More risk. More films that almost fall apart because they’re reaching for something big.
JiCanWin.com Score: ★★★★☆
Verdict: Nearly great, occasionally frustrating, but undeniably powerful. A film that reminds you how close Netflix can get to true cinema — and how much more I want from them in this lane.
