Rebel Ridge (2024)
They brought the fight. He'll bring them down.
Remember the movie I mentioned last week? Well it’s time for it to get seen. After doing this for years, I’m starting to feel like my somewhat basic way of doing reviews really doesn’t do all the movies I watch justice - but it is what it is. The amount of effort I put into the reviews is as that fine balance of too much more and I’d consider it going over the line and becoming cumbersome - any less and I’d feel like I wasn’t trying enough to merit doing it. Seems a little out of place for me to mention that perhaps, but it in a ways flies in line with tonight’s movie, so we’ll be coming back to that sentiment later. For now, let’s prepare for a movie fresh off the Netflix releases - tonight we visit Rebel Ridge.
I can totally get where the comparisons to First Blood are coming from when people say them about this movie. That being said, I also feel like it’s a little bit of a misleading statement for the movie, as the two go drastically different ways outside of that surface level attachment. What surface level? Well, we have a veteran who rolls into town and gets treated the wrong way by the cops, and they might just push him to doing some stuff he otherwise had no intention of doing. Sounds pretty familiar right? Except this one is modern, our vet wasn’t deployed, and in turn his doing something about it doesn’t involve shooting up an entire town with machine gun fire and injuring a bunch of folks in the woods with Vietnam-style booby traps. Our character here is much more well put together - he’s not a vagrant, he’s riding into town on his bicycle to post bail for his cousin whose in for a potentially lethal time if he gets sent to an actual jail. It also takes far less time for our cops to show up as jerks in this one - running the dude off the road with their cop car. From there, the entire situation just starts getting more over the top as we see just how corrupt the local department is and how deep said corruption runs.
The actors do a pretty good job here. Although the names might not be popping out to everyone it is safe to say that they have in fact been in a decent amount of stuff, even if it’s not perhaps as the leading person. Still, they do a dang good job at playing to how the movie wants them to. I distinguish it like this, because at times it might feel almost a little subdued or under-performed, but in terms of performing from a character standpoint it all ends up feeling relatively reasonable to be honest. Our lead has an absolutely mint hundred-yard stare that he wears in a lot of situations, come off as calm, collected, and calculating. You can see the wheels turning in his head but his face and body motion largely doesn’t give away just what it is that he’s thinking. Our lady lead remains pretty calm in most situations as well, perhaps coming off slightly as the one whose underplaying things the most - it’s not that the actress doesn’t get energetic or emote as much as it is that the story beats keep her on reigned in a bit more than would feel like a natural conversationalist in most the situations. Again, acted well - it fits the plot and characters that they are like this - but I could understand if someone felt like it wasn’t as energetic as it could be. Team bad does a pretty good job chewing things up as people you don’t like, but also manages to keep it under wraps so they don’t come off as some megalomaniac super villain.
Our lead character doesn’t really feel too much like he has an arc, but he does have plenty of character. With our time spent in the movie, we get to see him pushed pretty far to his limits and past it, and yet everything is done quite reasonable and honestly somewhat moral. He’s not there to go on some murderous rampage, he’s there to get things done and eventually is forced to use the skills he has. Our lead lady comes off as pretty level-headed but like a dog with a bone when she latches on to something it seems like she can’t be easily torn away from it, even when it’s risky. She even get’s to have some backstory that gets dropped to help fill her out as more than just an accessory good-gal. Our bad guys are even given reasons - at least on the level of a group, if not really specifically individually - that although it doesn’t make them the slightest bit less bad it does at least feel more thought out than just “bad for the sake of it.”
Cop harassment 101.
The costumes are on point - although it’s all modern attire. Looks like it belongs? Check. Never makes you feel like it’s not supposed to be a believable story? Check. Ever really stands out as being something super cool and interesting? Not so much. The curse of nailing a modern wardrobe for the costume department. They do a pretty good job with keeping things in mind for continuity though - like scratches and taser marks. Props gets to have a bit more fun, as we do get some firearms, tasers, and vehicles setting about, all with various amounts of usage, function, and wear. The setting does feel like a pretty quaint little town out in nowhere-ville, so they picked a great spot for shooting that feel. Again, it’s all pretty darn modern and believable, so no single spot will really stand out too much - outside of perhaps the “catacombs” - which is like the basement of the town hall, just old, damp, and moldy. It’s also only in there for a little while, so you won’t feel like anything is all that out of place.
Action scenes exist. It’s not always an exchange - a fight if you will - but it does exist in various forms. We start the movie off with a gnarly car-assisted bike accident - even if our lead gets off with just some scrapes and scratches. We get some car chase style actions, we’ve got some martial arts in there, we even have a bunch of one side gun fights. Probably the most interesting thing this movie does is actually what it doesn’t do - our hero really isn’t out to kill people. Yeah, he can efficiently strip you of your weapon and turn it into his weapon, but rather than starting to drop brass and stack bodies he’s all about disarming and “less lethal” activities. It might be a bit strange, but that really does set it apart - especially from something like the original Rambo flick that most the headlines I had seen like to compare it to. Yes, he wasn’t necessarily out to kill in that first movie, but Rambo had no problem with very brutal tactics thanks to the situation of that movie whereas our lead here is honestly looking for a peaceful way out at every turn until there really is no longer an option - and even then his body count is I think a single fish the entire movie. That and maybe that one dude’s pride, but he had that coming.
The movie starts off with Iron Maiden, and I love me some Iron Maiden. It really doesn’t have much relevance on anything - but I do remember it, which is more than most movies. Beyond that the music does it’s job as you would expect. I feel perhaps it’s maybe a little understated at times or not quite what it could be, but it works fine. Balancing is great, and you won’t find yourself not hearing any lines on the movie’s account. The biggest part to talk about is probably the part I like talking about the least, which is the thinking persons part. It’s got a bunch here, and I wouldn’t say I’m qualified to talk about it all. I haven’t had any suspicious run ins with the law or corruption in that sense - so in my isolated little world everything is all fine and dandy. The movie does do a great job of painting a picture of why that corruption is there - and to say that being understandable makes it any less a pile of manure would be a lie. It’s like when you watch a super hero movie and the villain does his big speech and you look over at your buddy and your like “you know, he isn’t wrong though.” Or, to quote the Dude - “You’re not wrong Walter, you’re just an asshole.” So yeah, there’s a lot in there on that front and the stuff that comes with it - like doing the right thing, doing the best you can to be the better person, probably some racial commentary in there I would think whether intentional or not. If you like to think with your drama, you probably got some good stuff to digest while watching this meal.
Secret good guy club.
It’s a good movie, I agree with folks about that. To say it’s just a modern Rambo is a bit unfair to both movies, but it is a great starting point to get someone to want to check it out. As long as they can ride with the movie for it’s unique bits then it’s pretty darn good selling point at that. It’s a nice little corruption drama, and it’s elements play together well. You feel a bit for the good characters, you want bad things to happen to the bad characters, and it all feels relatively believable. Actors do a fine job, shots are well placed, and all together it feels like something that people wanted to put together and not just some random cash grab or tax write off. The worst thing I can say about it is that it looks modern so there isn’t a massively stand-out visual style about it. Check it out, especially if you have a Netflix account.