A Tense Ride
Summary
Rebel Ridge has solid performances from the entire cast with Aaron Pierre and Don Johnson the obvious standouts; I like the character of Terry, but I feel like we only got a taste of his skill-set here and would like a sequel with more action. As it is this is a little over long and could have used a few more set-pieces for pacing reasons.
Plot: An ex-Marine grapples his way through a web of small-town corruption when an attempt to post bail for his cousin escalates into a violent standoff with the local police chief.
Review: I love stories about corrupt cops; there is always this underlying tension as how do you stop people who are meant to be enforcing the law? That’s basically the story of Rebel Ridge starring Don Johnson as a corrupt police chief and Aaron Pierre as our protagonist Terry Richmond.
Terry is minding his own business riding into a small town with a bag full of money to post bail for his cousin. He (rather stupidly) is listening to headphones while riding his bike and doesn’t hear the police car behind him, so they end up ramming him off the road. The cops think he is evading them and they confiscate the money thinking he is a drug runner. Terry remains calm and tries to confront the Chief about getting his money back, however things only escalate from there as he tries to get the money without getting into further trouble with the “law”.
Rebel Ridge wastes no time getting going and is tense from the very start; it’s unpredictable and we are for the most part on Terry’s side; listening to headphones on a bike makes you a dick though, so he loses a point for that.
I was expecting an almost Reacher-esque tale here and it does feel like it at times as Terry has a particular set of skills which means he can handle himself. Sadly, we don’t get nearly enough action in this movie with Terry mostly evading cops and using non-lethal force to subdue anyone in his way. I do like the character and I would love to see him in further adventures, but just give him a few more fight scenes. It’s also far too long at 2 hours and 11 minutes, so the pacing does drag and you could have trimmed a few minutes just for pacing.
The highpoint is seeing Don Johnson play a villain and he is certainly effective and hateful; he isn’t a cartoon character though and feels like someone who could easily exist. The movie goes more for realism so there isn’t anything over the top or ridiculous (unfortunately) in terms of action.
We get some brief hand-to-hand combat and a shoot-out towards the end, but aside from that there isn’t much else in the set-piece department.
Overall, Rebel Ridge is a tense tale with Aaron Pierre making for a brooding badass and Don Johnson a hateful antagonist; it’s too long and doesn’t have enough action, but it’s still an entertaining ride.