Five movies to watch on Netflix if you loved ‘The Rip’
Ever since Netflix reunited the prolific Hollywood duo Matt Damon and Ben Affleck for The Rip this year, the cravings to see more from each of them have clearly heightened.
In retrospect, the yearnings completely make sense, considering Damon and Affleck never fail to deliver. Having kick-started their careers in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, the on-screen partners-in-crime have also been real-life friends since childhood.
Damon and Affleck’s Hollywood legacy has always been entwined; after all, they got their first big break in Tinseltown simultaneously after co-writing and co-starring in Good Will Hunting, which went on to bag an Oscar and gave Damon his first acting nomination.
While the pair has a lot more in store in the days to come, for those still not over their latest Netflix action thriller, let’s take a trip down memory lane with five movies to watch on Netflix if you loved The Rip.
Five movies to watch on Netflix if you loved The Rip
Triple Frontier (JC Chandor, 2019)
After the high-stakes thrills that The Rip brought on its coattails earlier in January, we couldn’t help but return to an action-adventure movie on Netflix starring none other than Ben Affleck, Triple Frontier. The 2019 punch-fest stars Affleck alongside Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal as a group of former US Army Delta Force operators who reunite for an unlikely heist.
Triple Frontier follows these five ex-US Special Forces operatives who scheme a million-dollar heist in the sparsely populated multi-border zone of South America from a dangerous drug lord. For the first time in their prestigious careers, these unsung heroes embark on a mission for themselves, not for their country. But when the plan blows out of proportion, their loyalties are tested, and morals are pushed to the point of no return.
The Talented Mr Ripley (Anthony Minghella, 1999)
Now, coming to the first Matt Damon starrer of the post-The Rip marathon, we have The Talented Mr Ripley waiting on Netflix for you. Adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel of the same name, the American psychological thriller is set in the 1950s and stars Damon as the infamous con artist, Tom Ripley, who is sent from New York to Italy to bring Dickie Greenleaf back home.
But on his quest, Ripley becomes insanely obsessed with Greenleaf’s wealthy lifestyle and the riches. The Talented Mr Ripley follows Ripley as he begins impersonating Greenleaf following a fateful encounter, capturing the artist’s cunning web of deceit, scam, and murder that he owes to maintain the opulent life he has already stolen. The thriller unpacks Ripley’s trail of crimes as he capitalises on his talents of forgery for identity theft, succumbing to growing paranoia to evade capture.
Ford v Ferrari (James Mangold, 2019)
Up next, there’s a biographical sports drama starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale, Ford v Ferrari – a movie name that’s enough on its own. The sports drama tells the story of a dedicated team of American and English engineers and designers, anchored by automotive designer Carroll Shelby and his English driver, Ken Miles, recruited by Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca to build a race car for a special mission.
The mission was to build a race car that could ideally defeat the dominant Italian racing team, Scuderia Ferrari, at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France. Packed with high-stakes, adrenaline-pumped racing sequences and the most legendary rivalry that first began in 1963, Ford v Ferrari captures how this one mission forever altered endurance racing, thanks to the development of the Ford GT40.
Elysium (Neill Blomkamp, 2013)
For those still seeking action thrills, tune into Elysium on Netflix, which comes with a balanced dose of sci-fi. Starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, the dystopian sci-fi action film marks Neill Blomkamp’s second directorial effort, set in both a decadent Earth and an opulent artificial world called Elysium. The film takes place in 2154, when the super-rich reside on a disease-free space station called Elysium.
As for the rest of humanity? Well, they’re restricted to a ravaged, overpopulated Earth. Elysium stars Damon as MaxDa Costa, a factory worker exposed to deadly radiation, who must invade and infiltrate the space station to use a Med-Bay to save himself. So, he joins forces with hacker Spider to help him navigate the treacherous quest to take down the highly advanced security system of the station.
The Last Thing He Wanted (Dee Rees, 2020)
Based on Joan Didion’s novel, The Last Thing He Wanted is a political thriller, led by two of the biggest Tinseltown celebrities, Ben Affleck and Anna Hathaway. The movie primarily follows Elena McMahon, a DC journalist who leaves her job at The Atlantic Post to care for her terminally ill father, ultimately inheriting his shady arms-dealing role to fulfil his dying wish.
While her newfound occupation soon pushes her into the world of spies and military personnel, things soon get out of hand when she tries to break a story about the CIA smuggling weapons to the Nicaraguan Contras, as she becomes a scapegoat of the very conspiracy she was investigating. The Last Thing He Wanted features a complex procedural dynamic between Elena, her father, and a dubious government agent that Affleck portrays. But if you want more details on the complexity, watch the political drama on Netflix now.