Movie Review - The Rip

Director: Joe Carnahan
Genre: Crime/ Action/ Thriller
Runtime: 113 minutes
Year: 2026
Starring: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Catalina Sandano Moreno, Sasha Calle, Kyle Chandler
 
Description: A group of Miami cops discover a stash of millions in cash, leading to distrust as outsiders learn about the huge seizure, making them question who to rely on.
 
Review: The film follows a Miami police narcotics squad that stumbles upon a massive drug haul and millions of dollars in cash in an abandoned warehouse. What follows is a psychological game of cat and mouse: the officers must count the money on the spot, but the temptation, greed, and mutual distrust soon take hold. As the walls close in on them and dangerous outsiders get wins of the loot, loyalty within the team crumbles at record speed.

What makes this film so good is the chemistry between Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who carry this film effortlessly. Their decades-long real-life friendship gives their characters a tangible history and depth. They way their mutual trust slowly begins to crack is a joy to watch. Strong performances across the board, with Steven Yeun and Sasha Calle in particular delivering memorable performances that keep the group’s dynamic constantly sharp.

There is constant underlying tension. Director Joe Carnahan creates an intense, claustrophobic atmosphere. And as soon as the situation spirals out of control, the film treats you to raw, explosive actions scenes with fantastic sound design.

The moral dilemma is built up brilliantly in the first half, the film leans a bit too heavily on familiar Hollywood action clichés as it approaches the finale. Although the plot twists are really good.

“The Rip” is a must-watch for fans of intense crime thrillers in the style of “Heat” and “Training Day”. It’s one of the better and most ambitious action movies Netflix has released recently.

Rating: 4/ 5

Movie Review - Cold Storage

Director: Jonny Campbell
Genre: Horror/ Comedy
Runtime: 99 minutes
Year: 2026
Starring: Joe Keery, Georgina Campbell, Sosie Bacon, Liam Neeson, Vanessa Redgrave, Leslie Manville,
 
Description: When a highly dangerous fungus escapes from a secret laboratory, a former bioterrorism agent (Liam Neeson) is called back into action. Alongside two young employees (Joe Keery, Georgina Campbell), he must confront an invisible and out-of-control threat.
 
Review: With “Cold Storage”, director Jonny Campbell delivers a delightfully nostalgic yet spot-on genre blend that strikes a balance between gory body horror and deadpan comedy. The screenplay was written by David Koepp, who based it on his own novel of the same name. It doesn’t shine in terms of originality, but more than makes up for it with the pace and a healthy dose of self-aware humor.

The story starts simple and effectively: the young, somewhat laconic night guards Travis “Teacake” Meacham and Naomi Williams are expecting a dead-boring shift at a large-scale storage complex. What they don’t know, however, is that this complex was built right on top of a sealed-off, underground military base. Due to a sudden rise in temperature, a decades-old parasitic fungus escapes from its containment chamber. This microorganism multiplies at lightning speed, takes control of the human brain, and causes bodies to explode in spectacularly gruesome ways.

Two prevent the inevitable apocalypse, the two twenty-somethings are forced to team up with Robert Quinn, a seasoned and cynical former bioterrorism expert who tries to contain the situation. The film’s true strength lies in its outstanding cast. The chemistry between Joe Keery and Georgina Campbell practically jumps off the screen. They are the perfect level-headed counterparts to the chaos surrounding them.

But it’s Liam Neeson who steals the show portraying his familiar, tough persona with a delightful wink and deadpan comic timing. The visual effects and the over-the-top gore immediately bring to mind classic 1980 B-horror films, giving the movie a fun, tangible atmosphere that never gets too pretentious or terrifying. Still “Cold Storage” stumbles here and there.

“Cold Storage” is a slightly predictable yet extremely entertaining rollercoaster ride, that fully delivers on the promise of a wacky, bloody night at the movies. For fans of sci-fi and horror comedy, this film is definitely worth watching.

Rating: 3/ 5

Book Review - What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Title: What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier # 1)
Author: T. Kingfisher
Genre: Horror/ Fantasy
Published: 2022
 
Description: When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruravia.
 
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growth and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.
 
Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of the Usher before it consumes them all.
 
Review: “What Moves the Dead” is an atmospheric and eerie retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic “The Fall of the House of Usher”, which excels in world-building but ultimately falls just short of true depth.
 
From the very first page, author T. Kingfisher establishes a gloomy atmosphere that immediately gets under the reader’s skin. The greatest strength of this novella lies in the protagonist, Alex Easton, whose down-to-earth perspective serves as a fascinating guide through all the misery. Easton also brings a healthy dose of dry humor, allowing Kingfisher to perfectly break the dark tension through sharp, cynical dialogue. The addition of a bizarre natural phenomena and terrifying fungi gives the familiar basic story a unique and modern body horror twist.
 
At barely 170 pages, the build-up towards the end feels rushed. As a result, the supporting characters unfortunately remain one-dimensional and are given little chance to truly come to life for the reader. The plot was interesting, yet I was not as invested as I hoped I would be.
 
It’s a delightfully creepy book, that I enjoyed for the most part. But the lack of depth in most characters, due to the shorter format, made that I didn’t fall in love with this book. I am still interested in other work from T. Kingfisher, because her writer is beautiful.
 
Rating: 3/ 5