The Rip is currently one of the most-watched movies on Netflix. That’s not particularly shocking considering it’s a pretty high-profile affair, marking the latest collaboration between Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The movie got a solid critical response in general, but one group of viewers is taking issue with it, not for anything that the cast does, but rather how the movie presents itself to the audience.
Somebody Called The Rip ‘A Parody’ Of Netflix Movies, And Viewers Have Thoughts
A recent post on Reddit has blown up with comments after it called The Rip “a parody” of Netflix movies. It basically suggests that The Rip is nothing except two major plot points, surrounded by dialogue discussing those plot points over and over again. It goes further to suggest this was all done intentionally, as a sort of subversive act. A lot of the replies aren’t giving the movie that much credit, but are still taking issue with what the film does. Comments include…
- Pretty sure it wasn’t intentional. It’s just what Netflix does. And it’s pathetic – ianjcm55
- I’m pretty sure the budget was 100 million. Matt got 50, Ben got 50. Then the crew had a whipround and the movie was shot for $10 and a bag of weed. – flopisit32
- Netflix is a cancer to art – JayKay8787
- I have a feeling Netflix told them to make it a certain way (which Matt Damon mentioned in that Joe Rogan interview), and these guys decided to do their version of “malicious compliance”. – Outrageous_Lock_9313
The last comment is an interesting one, as it references the fact that Matt Damon had already spoken about the fact that Netflix absolutely did make changes to The Rip specifically to help it cater to the “normal” streaming audience.
Matt Damon Spoke Directly About How Netflix Influenced The Rip
In an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast before the release of The Rip, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck appeared together, and Damon specifically mentioned that Netflix had notes for The Rip to make it streaming-friendly. Damon said…
Now, [Netflix is] like, ‘Can we get a big [action scene] in the first five minutes?’ We want people to stay tuned in. And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching.
See, Damon himself was critical of the way that streaming could potentially change filmmaking going forward.
That said, there is, of course, no indication that The Rip is somesort of subversive masterpiece that is critical of Netflix’s production strategy while appearing on Netflix. Of course, if somebody did attempt to do that, perhaps it wouldn’t look that different from The Rip.