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Rebel Ridge meets audience’s expectations
FRI.| 10-4-24 | ENTERTAINMENT
Charting as high as number one among Netflix’s top movies in America, the action/thriller film “Rebel Ridge” has taken the movie world by storm and impressed critics nationwide. Released on Sept. 6, this film follows ex-marine Terry Richmond’s mission to re-acquire money for his cousin’s bail, which was wrongfully seized by a corrupt police department.
This film is the definition of a slow burn. While there are a few action sequences mixed in throughout, most of the movie gradually builds towards a climactic action-filled ending as Richmond discovers more and more about the corruption and deceit within the town of Shelby Springs.
While this is a style that many viewers enjoy, I found some parts of the movie fairly dry and uninteresting. Because of the lack of depth within each character and the weak relationships between them, during any long stretch of time without an action sequence, I felt myself struggling to stay invested in the film.
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Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed the ending and the action scenes spread throughout, even if they were few and far between. The way each character interacted and fought during these moments was exciting and captivating. I also really appreciated how they were able to maintain the backstories and motives of the characters even during fight scenes. For example, when Richmond was fighting law enforcement, he used non-lethal force and various submission moves to beat his attackers, which is consistent with his Jiu-jitsu background and motive to bail out his cousin, as described earlier in the film.
The overall plot of this film was entertaining and unique to other action movies, which tend to be fairly predictable. I enjoyed the various twists and turns as Richmond figured out more and more about the scale of the corruption. The fact that some characters switched sides during the fight sequences, which took place near the end of the film, made this an entertaining watch and added a human element to the characters who were previously dry and predictable. There is also a mystery element to this story as Richmond slowly gets to the bottom of who started the town's corruption and who is involved in the police department's money scandal.
While this was not my favorite action movie, overall, it was an enjoyable watch. Each actor did a decent job, even though the characters were somewhat simple, and the plot was original and captivating at times. On the other hand, it did lack some of the excitement and thrilling sequences of a typical action film. That being said, I would still recommend “Rebel Ridge” to any film fan aimlessly scrolling through Netflix.