FilthyD wrote:
Rebel Ridge (Netflix)
Easily my film of the year so far. A proper grown up action/thriller that doesn't spoon-feed the viewer and avoids all the usual genre tropes.
9/10
As I have a stinking cold (in fact it’s probably flu or some variant of covid and I’m lucky to be alive) I was casting around for something to watch last night. First of all I gave
Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom a go. Fuck me! How on earth does shit like this get made? Utter rubbish. Then cor’ blimey me old china I thought the Amy Winehouse biopic might get me up the old apples and pears wif’ it’s authentic old Landan nonsense. Reckon I gave that at least 10 minutes. Cor blimey guvnor it wasn’t for me. Finally I remembered you gave
Rebel Ridge 9/10, so I settled on that.
I wouldn’t go as far as you, but as an intelligent, grown up, action, revenge thriller, it’s miles ahead of the John Wick franchise that's for sure.
Basic plot. A small town in the US, I’m thinking the South, police department finds itself broke due to being continually sued as their process is somewhat ‘dubious’ to say the least. Chief Don Johnson, who’s more than decent in this, comes up with a cunning plan to alleviate the funding shortfall. Imposing ludacris fines, and impounding any cash they find, legally it has to be said. Unfortunately for these good ol’ boys they come up against ex-marine Terry, played by Britt Aaron Pierre, enroute to bail his cousin out. A tense encounter, mostly because Terry is a black man in the South being stopped by two white cops, results in the bail money being confiscated, which results in his cousin being murdered.
There’s no rampaging here. It's nicely plotted, albeit it sags somewhat in the middle, with the impressive Pierre handling the action scenes with aplomb. This was originally a vehicle for John Boyega. In fact filming started before he quite literally walked away in still unexplained circumstances. In Pierre they found a more than adequate replacement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF3gZicntIw