Rebel Ridge

(RAMBO: FIRST FORFEITURE)

Enjoyable, well put-together, with some good rising tension and compelling performances. But slightly overwritten, overlong, too self-serious and self-important to really kick ass the way it seems to want to. Anyone in this to see a dude take out some bad cops will be waiting through a hell of a lot of dialogue and plot to get there. It’s worth it for other things but certainly not that

The film spends five seconds of a misdirect at Rebel Ridge, which encapsulates the film's marketing campaign very well. This is a drama, not an action film - and a decent one, for the first forty or so minutes, before it devolves into a bunch of nothing that ultimately unravels any early comment it makes on the state of policing in the US to say, instead, "It's just a few bad apples in very specific circumstances actually."

Aaron Pierre is going to be a star. What a phenomenal performance from him. His hand to hand fight sequences were so damn good. The story complimented his physical nature very well. There was enough development as well within the characters that helped keep you glued to the screen. Very well made.

One of the more entertaining action thrillers in a while. Super well-made by Saulnier and sporting a star-making turn from Aaron Pierre.

What a performance. Absolutely great movie and music was so daunting throughout. Top tier film. Felt like a different kind of rambo part 1. Was in a different class so it didn’t copy at all.

I love movies that have one foot in the thriller genre and one in the action genre, and excel in both regards. Pierre is riveting and I can't wait to see more of him.

Good cinematography, the pace is too slow

A great first third is marred by a ridiculously long run time that saps all suspense and reduces the rest to slow moving plot lines, redundant scenes and sloppy editing. Some cool action scenes and initial story arc

Reacher but he's a black guy. Which.. *shrug* isn't necessarily a bad thing. Could've been more concise, I think. It may have run a bit long for my taste, and yet I would've liked a more solid and satisfying conclusion at the very end.

It was really good at moments but it lacked finesse in the end... too hurried, not enough violence... I wanted to see more arm/leg breakage for the ones who deserved more... idk, I guess I wanted more.

Don't let the AI write your scripts.

If you also tuned in for what you thought was ‘Rebel Fridge’, then you too will be pleasantly surprised.

Think of an action movie, but it provides excitement and tension not with fight and conflict scenes, but with immersive dialogues between characters and atmosphere creation. I had a great time watching Rebel Ridge. Charismatic, cool and very entertaining.

It's nice in parts. Pierre's performance is good and I like small town conspiracy stories, but it's too slow and has too many subplots for its own good.

It feels like a vanilla version of Reacher season 1, which was itself a vanilla version of Banshee. Too much vanilla for me.

Really good action, excellent lead characters. Would love to see more of this guy.

Well crafted, decent action sequences but quite sparsely spread out. Not Saulnier's best but not his worst either, and not as gory as his usual fare. Requires a bit of suspension of disbelief but all good action films do.

Take some Rambo then some Jack Reacher add a little In the heat of the night and throw them in a blender. You get this waste of time.

the annoying kid from the chocolate factory seem to have exchanged the gum for the gun... don't do the crime if you can't do the slime

Had me hooked at the start, lost me halfway and the ending felt weak.

A strong black man encounters injustice American-style, but his physical superiority catches the eye of a fine-featured, intelligent but victimised white woman (but things are Far Too Serious for anything like a romance to develop). After that, things happen, some of them slightly confusing, and even the finale is difficult to follow, with the result being that at the end of the movie things just kind of stop, rather than being resolved in a way that audiences are likely to find satisfactory.

Kicked ass, this guy should be the next Batman

Saulnier is great at making oppressive atmospheres. Even the day feels dark. The best part of this is Pierre's performance, which is cool, sympathetic and powerful. There are a few scenes that don't quite hit like they should, but the non-lethal take on this is interesting. Didn't feel its length, the story unfolds at a good pace, and it has some emotional oomph. Handles police corruption and normal people's unwillingness to act well. What a detestable police force though. Just the worst.

An interesting take on a very capable army specialist getting screwed over by a corrupt small town sheriff and his police department. I liked the non lethal script, but there were plenty of unconvincing moments. Overall, the movie was engaging and interesting, but the occasional missteps subtracted from it greatly. Absolutely worth watching despite its problems.

The film is restrained in several interesting ways while still giving you the violent comeuppance you want to see from a film with corrupt cops. Also, imagining this film with John Boyega instead of Aaron Pierre is impossible. Put Pierre in all the action movies, thank you.

When my wife suggested me to watch this movie and described it to me, I thought of Serpico. Precisely, a character with a code name in the movie was called Serpico. Although the rest of the movie doesn't resemble Al Pacino's movie. I was still entertained.

I couldn't help myself to smile every time, when the movie tricked me in expecting some over the top action scene, where the hero would be kung-fuing, shooting while flying through a window etc. The main hero felt believable, and I actually was thrilled and unsure about how the whole thing will end up for him. All the action scenes reminded me of how exaggerated this usually is in movies.

Jeremy Saulnier remains at the top of the thriller game with superb craftsmanship, and with Rebel Ridge he may finally receive his due and be propelled to Netflix stardom. After a very strong start the plot does turn overwrought at some point, leaning ever more heavily on assorted genre tropes and excessive talkiness - which dragged it down for me, but I was still on the edge of my seat for much of this.

Saulnier remains a heck of a maker of movies. This may not be the constant thrill ride many would expect but it’s an intelligent look at small-town corruption with an excellent lead performance from Pierre, and when it does let loose it’s extremely satisfying.

I was a bit worried for Saulnier's career with the delays/Boyega quitting and his unceremonious exit from the third season of True Detective, but he's fully back and in more refined form than ever. This thing kicks ass, nails its tone, and has plenty to say while still fitting within the context of an old school action flick. There isn't a huge quantity of action but it is exceptionally well done, and Aaron Pierre makes this lead character the coolest motherfucker I've seen in a long time