Light spoilers follow for The RIP.

I'm a big fan of movies where Ben Affleck and Matt Damon co-star. I've greatly enjoyed films in which just one of them appears, but there's no denying that projects they're both in – Good Will Hunting, Dogma, and Air to name three – have a certain magic about them.

Color me intrigued, then, when the first trailer for The RIP, the first movie in almost three years they share screentime in, dropped in late 2025. A crime thriller with a talented cast and seemingly twisty-turny plot, it bore the tell-tale signs of being Netflix's next hit movie.

Enjoyable as the ride is, though, The RIP is simply a serviceable film. While engaging up to a point, it lacks originality and the shock value storytelling necessary to stand out from the genre pack.

Are we the good guys?

Inspired by true events, The RIP introduces us to Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon) and Sergeant J.D. Byrne (Affleck), who spearhead a crime-busting taskforce known as the Tactical Narcotics Team – or T.N.T for short – in Miami, Florida.

When an anonymous stash house tip-off comes in one evening, Dane rounds up the troops – J.D, Mike Ro (Steven Yeun), Numa Baptiste (Teyana Taylor), and Lolo Salazar(Catalina Sandino Moreno) – to investigate. Arriving at a property where the skittish Desi (Sasha Calle) lives, the group soon discovers an eye-bulging $20 million haul hidden in the attic.

Considering the size of the stash, it's not long before trust and tempers start to fray over whether they should call it in or, for reasons that become clear later, pocket the money. And, when outside forces – the DEA, a local cartel, and another mysterious faction – become aware of what's been found, Dane, J.D., and co. must establish who they can rely on and if they'll even survive until morning.

So, The RIP is yet another examination of institutional corruption within the law enforcement service? In a nutshell, yes. As with any tale involving crooked cops, though, the suspicious nature displayed by each character is what'll keep you engaged throughout its near-two-hour runtime as you try to determine who'll betray whom.

That said, The RIP would've better sustained the momentum of this particular brain-tickler if it weren't hell-bent on positioning Dane as the officer who appears to be behind the money-stealing suggestion.

Indeed, The RIP's trailers and its first act go to great lengths to install him as the prime suspect. Spoilers notwithstanding, things aren't as simple as they appear. Nonetheless, I would've been more invested in trying to solve the mystery before the third act's grand reveal if The RIP had actively explored the duplicitous nature and motives of other T.N.T. members much earlier, and in more depth, than it does.

Whether it's through characters' actions or serpentine narratives, similar genre fare like Prisoners, Memento, and Gone Girl – ironically, the last of that trio also stars Affleck – and classic whodunits keep you guessing from the get-go and/or right up to their climax.

Try though it might to elicit the same sort of jaw-dropping response when its big twist happens, The RIP hasn't built up the necessary tension to draw such a reaction when the time comes. It doesn't fall flat per se, and I'm sure the unexpected turn will surprise some viewers, but I expected more from a movie whose primary intention is to entertain via the unpredictability and apparent unreliability of someone within the T.N.T's ranks.

Acting on impulse

So, The RIP is sorely lacking in the storytelling department, but what about the performance of its star-studded cast?

As if it were ever in doubt, Damon and Affleck's on-screen chemistry is as engrossing as ever. The effortlessly natural rapport they exhibit ensures that Dane and J.D's bond is as tight and magnetic as the actors' own relationship. The pair bounce off one another with ease throughout, as their testosterone-driven characters butt heads with their superiors – and each other – in spicy and dicey circumstances.

The RIP's leads are ably backed up by their fellow actors, with Yeun and Calle giving particularly compelling performances. However, other prominent supporting cast members, Moreno and 2026 Golden Globe winner Taylor, are underused, with their characters occasionally being sidelined by the direction of the plot.

Additionally, I wish there had been more scope to develop the dynamics between the group's ensemble. Doing so would've gone a long way to explain each individual's actions, and further ratcheted up the tension and melodrama when accusations begin to fly as near-total mistrust sets in.

In fact, barring The RIP's examination of Dane and J.D's brotherhood, it's J.D and his FBI-employed brother Del's (Scott Adkins) topsy-turvy relationship that's arguably scrutinized in more detail than Dane and/or J.D's associations with their fellow T.N.T members. That might not matter to some, but it's an oversight I struggled to look past.

If it's action you want alongside – or instead of – your crime-based thrills, The RIP is a tad undercooked in that department. Indeed, the first of its slim gun-toting and vehicle chase sequences doesn't materialize until an hour has passed. Even then, while they're undeniably adrenaline-fuelled, the gunplay and rubber-burning set-pieces aren't as chaotic or seat-gripping as I'd hoped.

My verdict

No matter how you slice it, The RIP feels like a star-powered movie that was tailor-made for the Netflix generation. That being, a safe, not-so-memorable film that its so-called 'second screen-viewing' fanbase will enjoy for what it is before moving on to the next thing the Netflix algorithm suggests for them.

It's certainly not the worst film I've watched on the world's best streaming service – far from it, in fact. But, whether it was down to my heightened expectations for the latest Damon/Affleck venture, or myriad other reasons, it just didn't click for me – and that is a crime in and of itself.

The RIP launches worldwide on Netflix on Friday, January 16.

There's been a murder – and I'm not just talking about the plot of Agatha Christie's Seven Dials. In fact, I'm talking about the Netflix adaptation itself. The infamous crime author has sold between 2-4 billion copies of her work, but somehow, the TV version of The Seven Dials Mystery feels absolutely criminal.

Not to brag, but I'm ordaining myself as an expert here. Back in the 2000s, UK TV channel ITV had the monopoly on Poirot and Miss Marple adaptations, and I've grown up watching them. Add in movie classics like Peter Ustinov's Death on the Nile and devouring her books from the age of 14, and I'm an application away from joining the Agatha Christie fan club.

If we're comparing Agatha Christie's Seven Dials to everything I listed above (and it would be pretty hard not to), its must-miss energy is down to two things: the original novel and the changes made to the streamer's adaptation.

But before we dig deeper into that, don't let my instant negativity put you off too much. With a star-studded cast and a three-episode runtime, there is some merit to binging it... perhaps when you're trying to do some last-minute ironing on a Sunday afternoon.

The only person who will likely be breathing a sigh of relief is Kenneth Branagh, whose trilogy of Poirot movies received a widespread panning from critics and audiences alike. Personally, I only thought A Haunting in Venice was an out-and-out disaster, but he definitely won't be a crime-themed punching bag after this.

The Seven Dials Mystery is the wrong Agatha Christie story to adapt for Netflix

I would confidently bet £10 (or $10 / AU$10 for my US and Australian friends) that you've never heard of The Seven Dials Mystery before. Not only was it not a big hitter like And Then There Were None or Murder on the Orient Express, but the novel it takes characters from, The Secret of Chimneys, was a much bigger success. The Seven Dials Mystery released to mostly bad reviews from critics, and all three of these points together aren't the best groundings for an adaptation.

Is the original book really one of Christie's best? I don't think so. It's definitely got a more light-hearted tone, but that only really comes across if you were actually from the 1920s. The overarching mystery doesn't really stick, and it's all a bit too complicated for its own good.

None of these things are Agatha Christie's Seven Dials' fault, more what it's got to contend with. There were a million better stories for the biggest streaming service in the world to choose for its own original content, particularly if it wants to build up a visual back catalog of Christie's work.

Sparkling Cyanide, Crooked House or Cards on the Table might have made for shrewd choices, especially given as their narrative structures are all a lot more sound. But here's when we begin to run into our other problem.

If you've seen any of the latest TV Agatha Christie adaptations over the last decade – which have either been for the BBC or direct to Britbox – you'll have noticed a subtle downward spiral of quality. From Kim Cattrall's Witness for the Prosecution to Anjelica Huston in Towards Zero, no new series has seemed to garner favor with anyone watching.

So, are the glory days of adapting Agatha Christie for the small screen over? It certainly feels that way for the standalone novels. I think a streaming service like Netflix could score some points with a Miss Marple reboot, but even that's a big ask.

The changes Agatha Christie's Seven Dials make to the original book don't work either

WARNING: spoilers for Agatha Christie's Seven Dials ahead.

When Murder, She Wrote and Columbo used to air in the 1980s, viewers quickly caught on that whoever was the biggest star in an episode was also the murderer – so much so that creators then had to change their casting tactics. Clearly, we don't learn anything from history, as the biggest stars in Agatha Christie's Seven Dials are the ones who give the game away.

Without giving the ultimate whodunnit away (although you could just read the book if you want an answer), Lord Caterham has been changed to Lady Caterham in this adaptation, and that's a huge problem. Frankly, casting executives could and should do anything to have Helena Bonham Carter in their production, and she's as dazzling and zany as you'd expect in the limited screentime she has.

However, she also gives away the secrets of the Seven Dials in a way that wouldn't have happened had our lady still been a lord. It's an incredibly silly blunder that knocks the central pins of storytelling to a ground, and I can't believe the decision came from the same man who made Broadchurch.

If you want to keep some mystery until the end, I'd almost recommend skipping episode 2 entirely. You can work out all the connections and logistics at play by the halfway point – something the Queen of Crime would never have let happen on her watch, even if it was one of her weaker stories.

So, what am I really getting from this streaming experience? A feeling of being let down and not seeing enough of Bonham Carter. Shoutout to Martin Freeman though, who's clearly having the time of his life playing make believe in a game of Netflix Cluedo.

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